Fig. 3. sage, a salivary-specific bHLH protein, regulates sens. (A,B) sage is first expressed in the salivary placodes at stage 10 and continues to be expressed in the salivary glands of stage 14 wild-type embryos. (C,D) The embryos injected with sage dsRNA showed smaller salivary glands compared with embryos injected with injection buffer. (E,F) sage mRNA is expressed at normal levels in the salivary placodes of sens^E2 embryos but is reduced during later stages in the salivary glands of sens^E2 embryos compared with wild-type embryos (compare F with B). (G,H) SENS levels, although present, are reduced in sage dsRNA-injected embryos when compared with embryos injected with injection buffer. (I) GST pulldown showing that DA can bind SAGE. Lane 1, in vitro transcription translation extract without the GST fusion proteins; lane 2, GST + DA; lane 3, GST-SAGE + DA. The arrowhead indicates the band corresponding to DA. DA shows strong binding to GST-SAGE but not to GST alone.