Neuronal dynein is sufficient to promote axonal regrowth.

(A) ~10 rhodamine-labeled cells were transplanted from wild type blastulas to dync1h1-/- blastulas. (B) At 5 dpf, nerves contained wild type neurons (transplanted cells labeled by rhodamine-dextran, magenta) in a dync1h1-/- larva (host motor neurons labeled by Tg(mnx1:GFP), green; scale bar = 10 μm). (C-E) After transection, wild type axons (magenta arrowheads) are able to regrow robustly in the dync1h1-/- embryo, while dync1h1-/- host axons regrow significantly less (green arrowheads; scale bar = 10 μm). (F) Quantification of growth cone displacement in dync1h1-/- host axons and transplanted wild type axons. Open circles indicate dync1h1-/- mutant axons that grew along transplanted wild type axons. (G-I) Some dync1h1-/- axons demonstrated improved regeneration in the presence of wild type axons in the same nerve. Here, a dync1h1-/- axon (green arrowheads) follows along a previously regrown wild type axon (magenta arrowheads; scale bar = 5 μm).