Fig. 5
Etv2 cell autonomously initiates transdifferentiation of muscle cells.
(A) Blastula cell transplantation was performed from triple transgenic, mylpfa:mRFP/hsp70l:etv2/kdrl:GFP+, into wild-type embryos. Approximately 10 cells were transplanted per embryo. Transplanted embryos were raised until 22 hpf, at which point they were selected for embryos displaying mylpfa:mRFP expression in distinct regions absent in kdrl:GFP, region of interest (ROI) boxed in (B) corresponds to images in (C). These embryos were then either heat shocked or left as no heat shock controls. Embryos were then analyzed for mylpfa:mRFP/kdrl:GFP coexpression at 10 h post?heat shock and followed out to 42 h post?heat shock (C). A muscle cell labeled with the arrow undergoes transdifferentiation to form a lumenized vessel (C). (D) Quantification of transdifferentiation efficiency per muscle cell. Only clearly distinguishable muscle cells were counted. Thirty-eight chimeric embryos, 312 total cells, were observed in the heat-shocked condition, and 20 chimeric embryos, 143 total cells, were observed for the control non?heat shocked condition.