Fig. 2. Gonadal mesoderm phenotype of foi and E-cadherin/shg. Stage 14-15 embryos labeled by in situ hybridization to reveal expression of the 412 retrotransposon (brown), a gonadal mesoderm marker. (A) Wild type. The gonadal mesoderm has coalesced with the germ cells to form the embryonic gonad. (B,C) foi^16.33 mutant embryos showing examples of the severe (B) or moderate (C) gonad coalescence defects. Note that in B, the gonadal mesoderm cells fail to coalesce and, instead, extend into the neighboring mesoderm. In C, the gonadal mesoderm partially coalesces with the germ cells, but the gonad does not attain the compact, spherical appearance observed in wild type. (D,E) Embryos from osk mutant mothers (foi^20.71 osk^CE4/osk³⁰¹) aged at 18°C that lack germ cells but otherwise exhibit normal embryonic patterning. Embryo in E is also zygotically mutant for foi (foi^20.71 osk^CE4/foi^16.33). Note that the gonadal mesoderm coalesces normally in the absence of germ cells (D), but that the foi mutant gonad phenotype is still readily apparent under these conditions (E). (F) Embryo zygotically mutant for shg^IH (E-cadherin). Note that the gonadal mesoderm fails to fully coalesce into an embryonic gonad.

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