Fig. 4. Knockdown of BgE75-A reduces expression of ftz-f1 during abdominal segmentation and occasionally results in embryos without abdomens.
(A–E) dsBgE75-A and dspGEM embryos at the appendage forming stage. Embryos A, B, C were all dissected from the same ootheca and show a range of phenotypes, with embryo C not seemingly affected by the dsRNA. Embryo E comes from a second ootheca treated with dsBgE75A, and embryo E shows a similarly aged embryo from a dspGEM treated ootheca. (F–H″) Zoomed in view of the posterior of embryos from mothers injected with dsBgE75A and wild-type reference showing HCR double in-situ (F, G, H) and single channels for BgE75-A (F′,G′,H′) and BgFtz-f1 (F″, G″, H″). Each row in panels F–H″ are images from the same embryo. In composite images (A, D, G) BgFtz-f1 is in magenta; BgE75-A is in green, and DAPI is shown in grey. Expression of both BgE75-A and BgFtz-f1 is reduced in BgE75-A knockdown embryos. (I–J) dsE75A knockdown does not directly impact Bghh expression. (I) embryo from a mother treated with dsBgE75A showing DAPI (blue) and hh (cyan). (I′) BgFtz-f1 expression in the same embryo. (J) WT embryo with the same number (n = 10) Bghh stripes (cyan) as dsBgFtz-f1 treated embryo in panel I. DAPI shown in blue. (J″) BgFtz-f1 expression in embryo from panel J.