Fig. 2. Merkel cells are absent from the body skin and foot pads of Atoh1^CKO animals.

All tissue is from P22 animals, and all images are z-stack projections of confocal images. A–B”’) Skin from Atoh1^LacZ/+ (A-A”’) and Atoh1^CKO (B-B”’) animals. Brackets denote a single touch dome. Subpanels in A-A”’ show Merkel cells (arrows) from the wildtype touch dome denoted by the bracket, while none are seen in the Atoh1^CKO animal (subpanels B-B”’). D – dermis, GH – guard hair. C–D”’) Hind foot pad from Atoh1^LacZ/+ (C-C”’) and Atoh1^CKO (D-D”’) animals. Brackets denote epidermal rete ridges, asterisks denote areas shown in insets, and arrows in (C-C”’) mark individual Merkel cells. Cells positive for Keratin 8 and β-galactosidase are absent from Atoh1^CKO body skin and foot pad. E–F”’) Whisker pad from Atoh1^LacZ/+ (E-E”’) and Atoh1^CKO (F-F”’) animals. There is no difference in the immunostaining patterns between the two genotypes. Dotted boxes outline areas shown in insets. HS – whisker hair shaft. All Keratin 8-positive cells were also β-galactosidase-positive and vice versa in all tissues of both genotypes. Scale bar: 25µm in all panels, 12.5 µm in subpanels and insets.