DFsn down-regulates the levels of the Wallenda/DLK kinase to restrain synaptic terminal growth

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "DFsn collaborates with Highwire to down-regulate the Wallenda/DLK kinase and restrain synaptic terminal growth"</p><p>http://www.neuraldevelopment.com/content/2/1/16</p><p>Neural Development 2007;2():16-16.</p><p>Published online 15 Aug 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC2031890.</p><p></p> Staining for endogenous Wallenda in central nervous system neuropil in ventral nerve cords of wild-type (WT), [], [presynaptic rescue: ] and third-instar larvae. Upper panels show Wallenda staining alone, and lower panels show co-staining of Wallenda (red) with the synaptic marker HRP (horseradish peroxidase) (blue). Quantification of average Wallenda staining in the neuropil of third-instar larvae for the genotypes shown in (a). The Wallenda intensity was measured for each genotype and the background intensity measured for was subtracted. Wallenda staining in the mutant was significantly higher than WT (< 0.001). Presynaptic expression of a transgene rescues the increase of Wallenda level (> 0.5 for versus WT). Representative confocal images of muscle 4 synapses co-stained with DVGLUT (green) and FasII (red), in WT, and third instar larvae. Quantification is shown for bouton number (d) and synaptic branch point number (e) and synaptic span (f) for WT, and (n = 23, 23, and 22 cells, respectively). The mutant fully suppresses the morphological defects in the mutant (> 0.1 for ; versus WT in number of boutons and branch points; < 0.001 for versus in synaptic span, number of boutons and branch points)