File:Mouse genital ridge fragilis expression.jpg

Expression analysis of fragilis, fragilis2 and fragilis3 at E11.5/E12.5 in single cells from the genital ridge and by in situ hybridisation.

(a) shows PCR analysis of cDNAs from three gonadal stella-positive germ cells and three surrounding, stella-negative somatic cells. While fragilis is detected only in the three germ cell clones, fragilis2 and fragilis3 are expressed in the germ cells as well as the somatic cells.

(b) shows in situ hybridisation of urogenital ridges of E11.5/E12.5 embryos. While fragilis3 is expressed in the mesonephros as well as the genital ridge, fragilis and fragilis2 are restricted to the genital ridge. The staining pattern for fragilis appears punctate and restricted to single cells mimicking the pattern seen for the germ cell-specific stella gene. asterix: genital ridge; black arrowhead: mesonephros; scale bars: 400 μm.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=153542&rendertype=figure&id=F6

The Fragilis interferon-inducible gene family of transmembrane proteins is associated with germ cell specification in mice UC Lange, M Saitou, PS Western, SC Barton, and MA Surani BMC Dev Biol. 2003; 3: 1. Published online 2003 March 19. doi: 10.1186/1471-213X-3-1. PMCID: PMC153542

Published online 2003 March 19. doi: 10.1186/1471-213X-3-1.

Copyright © 2003 Lange et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.