Fig. 5. Cleavage plane orientations in fixed and live tissue. (A) Orientation of the cleavage plane in anaphase/telophase cells measured in DAPI-stained fixed 1.5- and 3-day-old embryos. Day 1.5 embryos (n=4 embryos), 198 divisions; day 3 embryos (n=3 embryos), 186 divisions. Error bars represent s.d. (B) Orientation of cleavage plane scored at cytokinesis in tissue slices taken at 1.5 days and cultured for up to 38 hours. Errors bars represent s.d.: 84 divisions, 12 slices, three experiments. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test comparing cleavage plane orientation of cells in fixed tissue (data from A, pooling 1.5- and 3-day-old embryos) with cells in live tissue (data from B) shows no difference in the distribution of cleavage plane orientations in fixed and live tissue (P=0.2). (C) Mitotic spindle movements, cytokinesis and final cleavage plane orientation monitored at 1.5-minute intervals in cells labelled with Gap43-mRFP1 (red) and eYFP-tubulin (green). Cleavage plane orientation is maintained for at least 7.5 minutes post-cytokinesis (purple arrows); mean change in cleavage plane was 3.6±2.7° (n=20 cells). Broken line indicates the apical surface; scale bar: 10 µm. (See Movie 1 in the supplementary material.)