Figure 7. Eyestalk ablation increases the level of HMGR transcripts.
(A) Northern blot of total MO RNA (4 μg/lane) from ESA males (n=4; 6 weeks after eyestalk ablation), intact males (n=4) and intact females (n=3; lanes 1–3 respectively). The 2.6 kb transcript was always more abundant than the 3.2 kb transcript. Both transcripts were most abundant in ESA males and least abundant in intact females, which often lacked a detectable 3.2 kb transcript. These results mirror changes in HMGR activity in the same animals (see Table 1), suggesting that the HMGR activity is regulated at least partly at the level of transcription. (B) The amount of rRNA in 4 μg of total RNA of each sample (lanes 1–3) was similar. The actual sizes of the transcripts are given on the right side of the blot. The blot of one animal from each group is shown.