Fig. 6. vab-7 expression in tbx-8/tbx-9(RNAi) embryos. (A-C) Similarity of expression domains of tbx-8 (A), tbx-9 (B) and vab-7 (C) GFP reporter constructs around the 400-cell stage. In all three cases, expression is seen in posterior muscle cells, although the domain of tbx-8 expression is slightly wider, with some non-vab-7-expressing nuclei showing up (A, arrowheads). (D) vab-7::GFP expressing nuclei at the 1.5-fold stage. Expression is seen in posterior muscle cells (arrowheads), the majority of which are dorsal, and in the posterior hypodermal cells hyp 8-11 (arrow, 4-5 nuclei). The vab-7::GFP construct gives a similar expression pattern to the vab-7::lacZ construct and antibody staining previously reported (Esmaeili et al., 2002; Ahringer, 1996). (E) vab-7::GFP expression in tbx-8/tbx-9(RNAi) embryos at the same stage. No muscle-specific expression of vab-7 is observed, even though the same number of muscle cells are present (see text). vab-7 expression is still seen in one or two posterior hypodermal cells (arrow), which appear to have shifted slightly anteriorly, presumably due to the general disorganisation of tbx-8/tbx-9(RNAi) embryos. Posterior is to the right. Scale bar, 10 µm.