Fig. 4. The activity of both Him and Her5 is necessary to prevent neurogenesis
across the medial IZ in vivo. (A-D) The inhibition of either Him or Her5
function triggers ectopic neurogenesis in place of the MIZ (dorsal views of
the MH region in flat-mounted embryos at the four-somite stage, anterior to
the left). Embryos are probed for ngn1 (blue) and pax2.1
(red) expression following injection of
her5MOATG(A), himGripNAATG
(B), himGripNASPL (C) (orange labels), compared to a
non-injected WT control embryo (D). Note that the vcc and r2MN are bridged by
ectopic ngn1-positive cells (double arrows) after blocking Her5 or
Him activity, while other undifferentiated areas are not affected (e.g. area
between r2MN and r4MN, asterisk. (G-L) him and her5
expression are not successive and interdependent steps of the anti-neurogenic
cascade acting in the MIZ (dorsal views of the MH area in flat-mounted embryos
at the three-somite stage, anterior to the left, used markers are
color-coded). (G,H) him expression in wild-type embryos (H) or after
injection with her5MOATG (G). Note that him
expression is not modified. (I-L) Expression of her5 (I,K) and GFP
(J,L) in her5PAC::egfp embryos injected (K,L) or not (I,J) with
himGripNAATG. Note that her5 and GFP expression
are unaffected. vcc: ventro-caudal cluster, r2MN: prospective motorneurons of
rhombomere 2, r4MN: prospective motorneurons of rhombomere 4.