Fig. 1. The mol locus encodes Foxa2. (A-D) Lateral views of 36 hpf
wild-type (A), moltv53a (B), molst20
(C) and foxa2 morphant (D) embryos. (E) Structure of the Foxa2
protein showing the positions of the likely truncations within the forkhead
domain caused by the moltv53a and
molst20 mutations. moltv53a results in
the complete loss of transactivating domains II and III, leaving a
C-terminally truncated Foxa2 protein. molst20 disrupts the
forkhead box DNA-binding domain, downstream of
moltv53a. Trans. domain, transactivating domain;
fox domain, forkhead box DNA-binding domain. (F-H) Dorsal views of
brains of a wild-type (F) and two moltv53a mutant (G,H)
embryos labelled to reveal the cranial motor nuclei. The fusion of the facial
motor nucleus (black arrowheads) is rescued in the
moltv53a embryo expressing functional Foxa2 (H). The
embryo in H is a homozygous moltv53a mutant as it still
shows midline fusion of a reduced oculomotor nucleus (red arrowhead).