Fig. 4. Grafted wild-type cells can restore nk2.1a expression in
hans6 mutant embryos. Labelling of panels is as in
Fig. 1. Anterior up (A-C) or to
the left (D,E), and sections (F,G). (A-C) Grafted wild-type cells
express han (hand2) in the mutant background. Arrows point
to a single grafted cell that contributed to the anterior lateral plate
mesoderm. The arrowhead in C indicates a grafted cell that contributed to
other tissue, not expressing hand2. (D-E) Examples of hosts
fixed at 55 hours post fertilisation (hpf). D shows an embryo (corresponding
to #4 in Table 1) that has
restored nk2.1a expression (arrowhead), an occurrence that was never
seen in siblings. The black arrow points to grafted wild-type cells, the red
arrows to the heart rudiment. E shows a hans6 embryo
without restored thyroidal nk2.1a expression. (F,G) Cross
sections of specimens of hans6 embryos with restored
nk2.1a expression. Grafted cells in the embryo shown in F
(corresponding to #5 in Table
1) are adjacent to the thyroid in cartilage, but also in heart
tissue (arrows). Note also that such a large thyroid as in F was never
observed in untreated hans6 embryos. Often, donor cells
clearly belong to the pharyngeal mesenchyme, but are also close to the heart
rudiment (G, embryo corresponds to #3 in
Table 1). c, cartilage
precursor cells; h, heart rudiment; p, pharynx; t, thyroid.