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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Dec 15.
Published in final edited form as: Dev Biol. 2010 Sep 26;348(2):231–243. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2010.09.014

Figure 4. Ato synergizes with Abd-A to promote ch organ formation in the abdomen.

Figure 4

PrdG4 Drosophila embryos with UAS-transgenes were immunostained for a marker (mAb21A6, blue) of the scolopodial sensory cilia. Close up views of the dorsal and lateral PNS of the thorax and abdomen are shown and segments that express (PrdG4-on, yellow) and do not express (PrdG4-off, blue) PrdG4 are highlighted at top. Graphs at right quantify data from at least 10 embryos. * denotes significant difference (P-value of at least 0.01) in scolopodia numbers between PrdG4-on and PrdG4-off within a body region (thorax or abdomen). ** denotes significant difference (P-value of at least 0.01) in scolopodia numbers in PrdG4-on segments between body regions (thorax versus abdomen). (A-A’) Immunostaining of scolopodial sensory cilia within wild type thoracic and abdominal segments that lack UAS-transgene activity. (B-B”) PrdG4;UAS-Ato embryos have significantly more scolopodia in PrdG4-on abdominal segments compared to either abdominal PrdG4-off or thoracic PrdG4-on segments. Ato induces 3.7 +/− 1.4 extra scolopodia in abdominal segments and 2.1 +/− 1.5 scolopodia in thoracic segments (P-value between PrdG4-on in abdomen and thorax is less than 0.001). (C-C”) Ectopic Sens (PrdG4;UAS-Sens) has little affect on the number of scolopodia in either the thorax or abdomen (0.6 +/− 0.3 extra in abdomen versus 0.4 +/− 0.2 extra in thorax, no significant difference). (D-D”) Co-expression of Ato and Sens (PrdG4;UAS-Ato;UAS-Sens) induces significantly more scolopodia in the abdomen than in the thorax (9.8 +/− 0.4 extra in abdomen versus 4.4 +/− 0.9 in thorax, p-value < 0.001). (E-E”) PrdG4;UAS-Abd-A embryos have two additional scolopodia in the thorax but no additional scolopodia in the abdomen (0.1 +/− 0.1 extra in abdomen versus 1.9 +/− 0.1 in thorax). (F-F”) Co-expression of Ato and Abd-A (PrdG4;UAS-Ato;UAS-Abd-A) significantly enhances the number of scolopodia in both the thorax and abdomen (8.6 +/− 4.0 extra in abdomen versus 7.2 +/− 4.5 in thorax). (G-G”) Co-expression of Ato, Sens, and Abd-A (PrdG4;UAS-Ato,UAS-Sens;UAS-Abd-A) significantly enhances the number of scolopodia in both the thorax and abdomen (6.4 +/− 2.8 extra in abdomen versus 5.1 +/−1.0 in thorax).