Fig. 5

Ectopic expression of Hox genes inhibits dendrite pruning. A–H Live confocal images of ddaC neurons at WP and 16 h APF. Somas of ddaC are marked by red arrowheads. Overexpression of Ubx (B), or Abd-B (D), Scr (E), but not Abd-A (C) in ddaC neurons caused significant dendrite pruning defects, as compared to the control (A). RU486-induced late larval expression of Abd-B (H), but not Ubx (G), via the GeneSwitch system, impaired dendrite pruning in ddaC neurons, as compared to the control (F). I Quantification of severing and fragmentation defects of ddaC neurons at 16 h APF. J Quantification of length of unpruned ddaC dendrites at 16 h APF. The number of neurons (n) in each group is shown on the bars. Error bars in all experiments represent ± SEM. One-way ANOVA with Bonferroni test was applied to determine significance for multiple-group comparison. n.s., not significant, *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001. Three independent replicates were conducted. Scale bars represent 50 µm