Figure 9. Complementary expression of the meiotic recombination marker sycp3 and the pluripotent marker pou5f1(oct4) in developing gonads.

In bipotential gonads at 20 dpf, comparison of the expression of the germ cell marker vasa (A), the synaptonemal complex marker sycp3 (arrow in B) and the pluripotent gene pou5f1 (arrow in C) revealed that sycp3 and pou5f1 were both expressed in germ cells but in a complementary non-overlapping fashion (red arrowheads and dashed lines in B and C). In differentiating testes at 24 dpf, expression of vasa was detected in germ cells (D) revealing that only some of the germ cells expressed sycp3 (arrows in E) but none of them expressed pou5f1 (F). In differentiating ovaries at 24 dpf, vasa labeled germ cells (G), and sycp3 only labeled those germ cells that were small (arrows in H), which interestingly did not express pou5f1 (red arrowheads and dashed lines in I) and had not reached the late stage IB. Complementarily, the larger oocytes that had reached diplotene stage expressed pou5f1 (arrow in I). Scale bar indicated per each raw: 0.1mm.