Fig. 5: Ablation of TAN neurons impairs the VBR, while optogenetic activation of TAN neurons induces the VBR.
From: Biomechanics and neural circuits for vestibular-induced fine postural control in larval zebrafish
a–d Ablation of TAN neurons. a Confocal stacked images of Tg(evx2:GFP) fish before and after laser ablation of left TAN neurons. b Behaviors of head-embedded fish during roll tilts. c Time course of the body bend angle upon roll tilt. The same trial shown in b. d Pairwise comparison of the maximum body bend angles between ablated-side-down and ablated-side-up tilts (three fish for left side ablation and four fish for right side ablation). Average values of two to four trials are shown for each fish. p = 0.003 (two-sided paired samples t-test). e–h Control experiment. e Confocal stacked images of Tg(evx2:GFP) fish before and after laser ablation of non-TAN neurons on the right side (magenta circle). f Same as b upon a control experiment. g Same as c upon a control experiment. The same trial shown in f. h Same as d upon a control experiment (two fish for left side ablation and four fish for right side ablation). Average values of four to six trials are shown for each fish. p = 0.23 (two-sided paired samples t test). i–k Optogenetic activation of TAN neurons. i Confocal stacked image of Tg(evx2:CoChR-GFP). The blue dotted circles are areas illuminated with blue light. j Behaviors of head-embedded fish upon blue light illumination. k Time course of the body bend angles. Positive values indicate body bend to the contralateral direction with respect to the illumination. The blue bar indicates illumination that lasts for 5 s. Six trials in a fish are shown. l–n Control experiment. l Same as i, but different areas (blue dotted circles) were illuminated as a control experiment. m Same as j upon a control experiment. n Same as k upon a control experiment. Four trials in a fish are shown. o Body-bend angle upon optogenetic activation (mean angle between 4 and 5 s). Six fish for each. p = 0.004 (two-sided two-sample t-test). Scale bars, a, e, i, l 50 μm; b, f, j, m 500 μm. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
