A) Histological sections of ovaries derived from Ago2
fl/ADH (left panel) and Ago2
ADH (right panel) females. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was performed as described in Materials and Methods. There were no obvious differences in ovary size, number of follicles, or follicular stages present between the two groups. The arrows indicate antral follicles, whereas the asterisks denote corpora lutea. Scale bar: 500 μm. B) Number of full-grown oocytes recovered from Ago2
fl/fl, Ago2
fl/ADH, Ago2
ADH, and Ago2 null females. Oocyte collection after equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) priming was performed as described in Materials and Methods. The data are presented as the mean ± SEM; 29 Ago2
fl/fl, 26 Ago2
fl/ADH, 54 Ago2
ADH, and 19 Ago2 null females were utilized. One-way ANOVA was used to compare the different groups and no statistical differences were found. C) Major reduction in AGO2 catalytic activity in oocytes from Ago2
ADH mice. Full-grown oocytes were microinjected with c-Mos siRNA and c-Mos transcript levels were assayed by qRT-PCR 40 h later. The experiment was performed 3 times and statistical analysis was done using one-way ANOVA, followed by Bonferroni post-test. *p<0.001; **p< 0.05.