Fig. 5.

SMC5/6 protein levels decrease in oocytes as mice age and Smc5 is essential for embryogenesis. (A,B) Protein was extracted from oocytes of wild-type C57BL6/J mice that were 4, 12 and 24 weeks of age. (A) Protein extracts from 150 oocytes from wild-type C57BL/6J mice were loaded onto each lane of a 4-15% SDS PAGE gradient gel and assessed for SMC5, SMC6, NSMCE1 and NSMCE2 protein levels. Nexilin and α-tubulin were loading controls. (B) Bar graph of the average relative protein levels for each SMC5/6 complex component. Protein band signal intensities were normalized against the nexilin loading control. Error bars represent standard deviation. Two-tailed paired t-tests were performed to compare each group and P values were defined as *P<0.05, **P<0.005 and ***P<0.0005. The data are based on five sets of 150 oocytes isolated from three separate rounds of oocyte harvest.