Fig. 7

Effects of her12 and her15 over-expression on somite morphology and clock genes. (A-C) GFP-RNA-injected embryos (850 ng/µl GFP-RNA, 2 experiments, n = 82, 96% show wild type morphology). (D-F) her12 RNA-injected embryos (800 ng/µl her12-RNA, 3 experiments, n = 102, 44% affected). (G, I, K) GFP-RNA-injected embryos stained for her1, her7 and deltaC, respectively (850 ng/µl GFP-RNA, 2 experiments, n = 96, 95% show wild type expression). (H, J, L) her12-RNA-injected embryos stained for her1, her7 and deltaC, respectively (800 ng/µl her12-RNA, 2 experiments, n = 104, 48% affected). (M, O) GFP-RNA-injected embryos (150 ng/µl GFP-RNA, 4 experiments, n = 235, 95% show wild type morphology). (N, P) her15 RNA-injected embryos (115 ng/µl, 4 experiments, n = 219, 44% show somite border defects). Note that another 34% of the injected embryos displayed gastrulation defects indicating that her15 might act pleiotropically. In addition misexpression of her15 caused severe brain defects resulting in improper brain patterning, enlarged brain vesicles and eye defects (compare M with N), while her12 misexpression causes overall brain enlargement (compare A, B with D, E, respectively). Compared to GFP-mRNA control injections (Q, R and T, U, respectively) cyclic gene expression of deltaC (S) and her1 (V) is disrupted. (A, B, D, E, M, N) whole mount embryos, lateral view, anterior to the upper left; (C, F, O, P) dorsal view, anterior to the top; (G-L and Q-V) flat-mounted embryos, anterior to the top; (A, C, D, F-L and Q-V) 10-somite stage embryos; (B, E and M-P) 14-somite stage embryos.