Figure 3

Effect of BDNF antisense morpholino oligonucleotides (MO) on Xenopus morphology and behaviour. (A) BDNF MO was designed against the 5' UTR and start ATG region (underlined). This region was 100% conserved between X. laevis and X. tropicalis. Asterisks indicate conserved bases. (B) Embryos were injected with 250 pg of XtBDNF-HA mRNA alone or with 20 ng of MO BDNFatg or the control MO (MOC). Embryos were harvested at St 12 and proteins extracts analysed by Western blotting. Xt BDNF was detected using anti-HA antibodies (arrowhead). The asterisk indicates a non-specific band from the same blot, which ensures equal loading in each lane. (C) Uninjected X. laevis embryos at St. 29. (D) Control morpholino (MOC) injected embryos at St. 29 developed normally. (E) BDNF morphants appeared slightly truncated at St. 29. (F) An uninjected tadpole with normal mechanosensory response, which escaped when probed with forceps. (G) BDNF morphants exhibited impaired mechanosensory response and did not escape when probed.