Fig. 4.
Sox11 is expressed in neural tissue and influences neural development in Xenopus laevis. (A) Whole mount in situ hybridization (WISH) of sox11 in frog embryos at st. 10.5 (vegetal view), 12.5, 15 and 18 (dorsal view along anterior-posterior axis), 25 (lateral view, with head to the left), 30 (lateral view of head) reveals sox11 is expressed in the presumptive CNS. Filled arrowhead marks ectoderm. Open arrowhead marks anterior neural plate. Asterisk marks intermediate and posterior placodes. Arrow marks branchial arches. F, forebrain; M, midbrain; H, hindbrain; E, eye; SC, spinal cord; BA, branchial arches. (B) Quantitative PCR of sox3, n-tubulin and sox11 expression during frog development reveals sox11 is expressed throughout early embryonic development. Data represented as mean±sem. (C-D) WISH of st. 15 embryos injected on the right side with sox11 RNA (dorsal view, along the anterior-posterior axis). sox11GOF expands expression of pan-neural marker, N-CAM, the proneural gene, ngn2, the neuronal marker, n-tubulin, and the neural progenitor marker, sox3. (D) WISH of st. 15 embryos injected on the right side with Sox11 morpholinos alone (top) or Sox11 morpholinos and sox11mt RNA (bottom). When Sox11 is reduced, expressions of N-CAM, ngn2 and n-tubulin were decreased, and expression of sox3 was increased; all LOF phenotypes were reversed when sox11mt was expressed.