Whole mount in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry for studying retinoic acid signaling in developing amphioxus

Abstract

Retinoic acid (RA) is a vitamin A-derived signaling molecule acting during development and in the adult. This chapter provides protocols to characterize the role of RA signaling during development of the invertebrate chordate amphioxus. As sister group to all other chordates and characterized by the most vertebrate-like RA signaling system of all invertebrates, amphioxus is an important model for studying the evolution of RA signaling. Focusing on the development of GABAergic neurons in the amphioxus central nervous system, we provide detailed protocols for maintaining and breeding adult animals, for performing pharmacological treatments of embryos and for analyzing the effects of these treatments by whole mount in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry coupled to confocal microscopy.

Keywords: Amphioxus; Cephalochordate; Fluorescent and confocal imaging; GABA; GAD; Immunohistochemistry; Neurobiology; Pharmacological treatments; Retinoic acid signaling; Whole mount in situ hybridization.