The actin bundling protein Fascin is important for proper early development in Strongylocentrotus purpuratus embryos

Figures

• 

  Figure 1. Knockdown of Fascin leads to delayed or arrested developmental progression. (A) Egg, zygote, 2-cell, 4-cell, 8-cell, 16-32-cell embryos were immunolabeled with Fascin antibody (green) to examine levels of Fascin protein through development. Tukey Kramer statistical test (Pollard et al., 2019) was used to analyze Fascin protein levels among various developmental stages. *denotes p<0.05. NS=not significant. (B) Control or Fascin MASO-injected (2 mM) embryos were immunolabeled with Fascin antibody (green) and counterstained with DAPI to label the DNA (blue). Fascin protein is localized perinuclearly in non-dividing blastomeres, enriched on the mitotic spindle in dividing blastomeres (arrows), and at the cell cortex. Fascin protein in Fascin MASO-injected embryos is significantly decreased compared to the control MASO-injected embryos. Scale bar = 50 µm; 3 biological replicates. (C) The level of Fascin protein in control and Fascin MASO-injected (2 mM) in individual blastomere of the 16-32 cell stage embryos was quantified with ImageJ, by using the average fluorescence per blastomere. Fascin protein is significantly decreased in embryos injected with the Fascin MASO compared to the control, demonstrating the efficacy of the Fascin knockdown. Circles…