Diagrams of the mRNA sequence for each Zic gene illustrate the location of the coding sequence (light gray boxes), UTRs (dark gray boxes), and functional domains (blue, magenta, and green boxes) within each of the Zic genes. Probes for each of the Zic genes in mouse (Zic1-5) and chick (Zic1-4) were designed to target the less-conserved 5’ and 3’ UTR regions of each gene (red lines above the mRNA diagram show the location of the riboprobes). The published sequences for chick Zic2-4 are still being annotated and updated, so the most 5’ and 3’ untranslated regions of the mRNA have not been defined. Abbreviations: UTR, untranslated region; ZOC, Zic-opa conserved domain; ZF-NC, zinc-finger nucleocapsid domain.