All images are projections of confocal sections, of super-resolution microscopy. (A, B) Kkv localises apically in the trachea of wild-type embryos (A) and in absence of exp reb (B). (C, D) The localisation of Kkv is apical also in presence of exp ΔMH2 in trachea (C) and in presence of MH2-exp in salivary glands (D). (E, F) At stage 14, in wild-type embryos (E) and in embryos deficient for exp and reb (F), Kkv is present in the apical membrane and in many intracellular vesicles (yellow arrowheads). (G) At stage 16, in wild-type embryo, Kkv apical distribution follows the pattern of taenidial folds and intracellular vesicles are mostly absent. (H) At stage 16, in exp reb mutant embryos, Kkv is apical but shows altered distribution pattern. (I, J) At stage 15, in control embryos, Kkv pattern is apical and covers the whole membrane leaving minimal spatial gaps (I); instead, in exp reb mutant embryos, Kkv distribution changes to a less organised pattern at the apical membrane (J). (K) Three different types of spatial distribution within a selected area. The positions of the defined objects can be random and exhibit characteristics of attraction (clustered pattern) or repulsion (regular pattern). The F-Function tends to be larger (≈1) for clustered patterns and smaller (≈0) for regular. The G-Function tends to be smaller (≈0) for clustered and larger (≈1) for regular patterns. (L) Kkv punctae (magenta) on the apical cell area marked by Armadillo (green) in the trachea of a control embryo. (L’) Positions of Kkv punctae on the selected area marked by black dots. (L”) Random pattern of distribution for the same area created by the spatial statistics 2D/3D image analysis plugin. (M) The corresponding observed F and G functions (blue) are displayed above and below the reference simulated random distributions (black) and the 95% confidence interval (light gray), respectively, indicating a nonrandom spatial pattern. (N) SDI histogram for the F-Function of the control (blue) and the Df(exp reb) samples. A significant difference between the frequency distributions for each group of individuals has been observed. (Kolmogorov–Smirnov D = 0.5833, p 0.05). (O) Kkv punctae (magenta) on the apical cell area marked by Armadillo (green) in the trachea of a exp reb mutant embryo. (O’) Positions of Kkv punctae on the selected area marked by black dots. (O”) Random pattern of distribution for the same area created by the spatial statistics 2D/3D image analysis plugin. (P) The corresponding observed F and G functions (blue) are displayed above and below the reference simulated random distributions (black), respectively. Both curves largely overlap with the 95% confidence interval (light gray), indicating a tendency towards a random spatial pattern. (Q) Frequency distribution histograms for the nearest neighbour distances between Kkv punctae in control (blue) and exp reb mutant samples. The distribution of values between the two groups is found significantly different (Kolmogorov–Smirnov D = 0.2036, p < 0.005). The underlying data for quantifications can be found in the S1 Data. Scale bars A-J: 10 μm; L, O: 2 μm.

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