Fig. 5

During normal zebrafish development, perp is expressed independently of p53 and the related proteins ΔNp63 and TAp73. (a,b,d-f) show whole-mount in situ hybridizations at 36 hpf; (a) p53 expression, which is most prominent in the brain, eyes, and gut. (b) p63 expression, most prominent in the skin. (c-e) perp expression in uninjected control embryo (c), and in p53 morphant (d), and ΔNp63 morphant embryo (e). perp expression in eyes, midbrain-hindbrain boundary region (mhb), and gut (gt) of p53 morphant, and in the skin (epi) of ΔNp63 morphant are indicated. (f) Comparative semiquantitative RT-PCR analysis of perp transcript levels in p53 morphants (lane 2), ΔNp63 morphants (lane 3), TAp73 morphants (lane 4), p53/TAp73 double-morphants (lane 5) and p53/Tap73/ΔNp63 triple-morphants (lane 6) at 48 hpf, with ef1α cDNA amplification as control. Efficiency of used p53 MO was confirmed by parallel coinjections with mdm2 MO, leading to a rescue of the mdm2 morphant phenotype, as described elsewhere.²⁰ Efficiency of ΔNp63 and TAp73 MOs was confirmed by the skin and craniofacial phenotypes of injected sibling embryos at later stages of development^{23, 26}