Figure 1. Overview of an intact freeze-fracture replica on the Girder finder grid with index number for systematic examinations of fiber gap junctions in the adult chicken lens. This representative large intact replica was prepared from a mid-sagittal Vibratome lens section (300 μm thick), which was initially trimmed into approximately 2×2 mm blocks to include the superficial and deep cortices from the anterior central region of the lens. Initial identifications of the lens regions (i.e., superficial versus deep) were made and recorded on the intact replica (~1,000 μm in diameter) using the index number. Detailed examinations of the structures of interest were focused primarily on the outer cortex (0-400 μm) and the inner cortex (400-800 μm from the surface) of the lens replica. The scale bar indicates 100 μm.