Fig. 7

Rods survival in the absence of Cox10. a Mouse model for OXPHOS deficiency in rods (\(rod^{\varDelta \ Cox10}\)). Cox10 deletion impairs assembly and function of the mitochondrial complex IV. b Representative immunofluorescence labeling for Cre (green) and COX4i1 (red) in the ONL and PS regions of \(rod^{\varDelta \ Cox10}\) mice at time points as indicated. White arrows: regions with reduced COX4i1 labeling in the PS of Cre-positive cells. N = 3 mice per time point. c Representative immunofluorescence labeling for VDAC1 (green, top panels) and COX4i1 (red, middle panels) in the PS region of \(rod^{\varDelta \ Cox10}\) and ctrl mice at 3 months of age. Bottom panels: merge. White arrows: regions with reduced COX4i1 labeling. N = 3 mice per genotype. d Representative micrographs of the retinal morphology of \(rod^{\varDelta \ Cox10}\) and ctrl mice at time points as indicated. e-g Spidergrams (left) and bar graphs (right) of OS length (top), IS length (middle) and ONL thickness (bottom) in ctrl (black) and \(rod^{\varDelta \ Cox10}\) (orange) mice at 3 (e, N = 3 mice per genotype), 6 (f, N = 3 mice per genotype), and 12 months (g, N = 4 mice per genotype) of age. All measurements from the spidergrams are included in the bar graphs. Data represent mean ± SD. Statistics: two-way ANOVA and Bonferroni’s multiple comparison test (spidergrams) or nested t-test (bar graphs). *: p \(\le\) 0.05. **: p \(\le\) 0.01. ***: p \(\le\) 0.001. ****: p \(\le\) 0.0001. PS: photoreceptor segments. OS: outer segments. IS: inner segments. ONL: outer nuclear layer. OPL: outer platform layer. Scale bars, 50 \(\upmu\)m