Figure 3
From: The α1-adrenoceptor inhibitor ρ-TIA facilitates net hunting in piscivorous Conus tulipa
ρ-TIA induced escape response on zebrafish larvae. The potential of ρ-TIA and its analogues (0.003–10 µM) to affect the escape response of treated zebrafish larvae, when presented with a light mechanical stimulus, was analysed using the manual touch-evoked assay. Larvae treated with ρ-TIA displayed a loss of escape response in a concentration dependent manner, where maximal ρ-TIA concentration (10 µM) completely deprived the larvae of their escape abilities. Sequential truncation of the N-terminal residues of ρ-TIA produced analogues (TIA2–19, TIA3–19, TIA 4–19) that induced a reduction in escape responses to the mechanical touch stimulus, with lower potencies compared to ρ-TIA. Absence of the N-terminal sequence “FNWR” from the peptide (TIA5–19) and the amino acid sequence “FNWRCC” alone (TIA1–6) had no significant effect on the larvae flight response at up to 10 µM. Larvae exposed to negative control (E3) exhibited normal escape response behaviour, with an average score of 8.9 (dotted line). Data is expressed as ± SEM and is the mean of values obtained from six independent experiments, each consisting of ten individual touch-evoked scores.
