Figure 1. mNanog and ventx1/2 overexpression cause similar effects in Xenopus embryos.

(A) Four-cell stage embryos (NF3) were injected in both dorsal blastomeres, with a 1∶3 mix of ventx1.2 and ventx2.1-b mRNAs (ventx1/2; 0.5 ng per blastomere), with mouse Nanog mRNA (mNanog; 0.15 ng/blastomere), or with water for control. Representative phenotypes observed at tailbud stage (NF28) are shown (lateral views, anterior to the left, dorsal to the top). (B) Percentages of observed phenotypes in three independent experiments for mock (n = 14), ventx1/2 (n = 31) and mNanog (n = 36) mRNAs injections. (C) Embryos injected as in (A) were collected at early gastrulae (NF10.5; whole embryos: ventral view, dorsal side to the top; hemisected embryos: lateral view, dorsal to the left, animal side to the top) and tailbud (NF28; ventral view, anterior to the left) stages and processed for whole-mount in situ hybridization (WISH) with a gsc or hhex probe, or with hba4 (black arrowheads) and egr2 (white arrowheads), respectively. The number of embryos showing staining similar to the one photographed over the total number of embryos assayed is indicated.