Mutants for the claudin Kune show altered mechanical responses to laser ablation. (A and B) Confocal slices of control (A) and kune (B) ventral epidermis expressing ubi-E-cad::GFP before (A and B) and 1 s after a laser cut (A′ and B′). (A′′ and B′′) Corresponding kymographs showing vertex displacement over time (every 5 s). Arrowheads mark the vertices attached to the cut edge. Bars: 5 µm (A, A′, B, and B′); 2 µm (A′′ and B′′). (C) Graph shows the displacement of cell vertices over time upon laser cutting in control (n = 41 cells, blue line, circles) and kune (n = 38 cells, red line, squares). Note that in kune cells, vertices retract faster than in controls as evidenced by their different retardation times τ (controls = 13.9 s; kune = 9.0 s; P = 0.0466). Maximum displacements d_M (control = 2.74 µm; kune = 2.77 µm; P = 0.8508) were similar between both genotypes. (D) Graph of displacement over time after a logarithmic transformation of the values presented in graph (C) for the initial time window (t < 20 s) shows a power law behavior. The slopes of the regression lines obtained for controls and kune are approximately the same (0.44; P = 0.8338), whereas the intercept value is significantly different (control = −0.74; kune = −0.47; P < 0.0014). Error bars represent SEM. Extra sum of squares F test was applied to test for significant differences between genotypes.