Figure 5.

Maintenance of Hoxd gene expression. (Left to right) TgH[d11/lac]^Ge, Del3, Del7, and Del9 E15 fetuses are shown. Both TgH[d11/lac]^Ge and Del3 fetuses showed tight maintenance of the Hoxd11/lacZ expression pattern at E11. Cells anterior to the early expression boundaries showed no staining at a later stage. In Del7 late fetuses, however, some diffuse staining appeared in anterior regions, i.e., the early pattern was no longer maintained. In Del9 fetuses, expression spread throughout the entire specimen, indicating a deficient maintenance. The right panel (d1/lacZ) shows that expression at the Hoxd1 locus in a fully preserved complex was maintained as well, indicating that the nonmaintenance of the Del9 configuration was not caused by sequences in 3′ of the Hoxd1 locus, but rather to the deletion the cluster.