Photo Highlight: Focus on Hybridization Chain Reaction

By Kate Whitlock

We loved the beautiful work submitted by a variety of labs in response to the Call for Images using Hybridization Chain Reaction (HCR) probes in Zebrafish (and other fishes).  

The image below includes five of the many images that were submitted:

(A) Müller glial cells expressing in the 3-month old zebrafish retina (cyan: GFAP antibody; magenta: RNAScope probe for sparc). Submitted by Leah Campbell in the Hyde lab (USA; lcampbe4@nd.edu)  

(B) seqFISH on paraffin-embedded tissue sections of the zebrafish craniofacial complex. Submitted by Hsuan Chen in the Crump Lab (USA; hsuanc@usc.edu)  

(C) The adult zebrafish forebrain choroid plexus. Max projection of a confocal image of an HCR for clu expression, color-coded in Fiji. Submitted by Inyoung Jeong in the Jurisch-Yaksi lab (Norway; inyoung.jung@ntnu.no).  

(D) HCR multiplexed in situ hybridization in a 36 hpf wild-type zebrafish embryo, revealing transcription factor expression in the developing forebrain. Cyan marks dbx1b, magenta lhx5, and orange nr2f2. The image has been mirrored to emphasize the bilateral symmetry of these patterning domains. Submitted by Aaron Scott in the Wilson Lab (UK; aaron.scott@ucl.ac.uk).  

(E) Flat-mounted zebrafish embryo (anterior to the left) stained by HCR RNA-FISH. grhl2b in yellow; cdx4 in magenta; sox17 in green. Submitted by Po-Shu Tu in the Materna & Woo labs (USA; ptu2@ucmerced.edu). 

In addition, three images have been selected for the IZFS website banner. The three images chosen are: “HCR in Three Links” by Aaron Scott (aaron.scott@ucl.ac.uk) from the Wilson Lab (UK)”; “Posterior Lateral Mesoderm”; by Elliot Perens (eperens@ucsd.edu) from the Perens Lab (USA); and “Gene expression in the zebrafish gastrointestinal tract after a high fat meal” by Alexandra Verbeke (averbek1@jh.edu) from the Farber Lab (USA).  

Please visit the IZFS website to see these lovely images!