Figure 4.

Effect of sox4 Knockdown on Xenopus laevis Embryo Development

(A) Top, representative pictures of stage-43 Xenopus embryos showing that bilateral injection of sox4 MO leads to a smaller head area (white dotted circles) and to microphthalmia compared to bilateral injection of control MO. Bottom, graph showing quantification of the head area for all tested embryos. n, number of embryos. The p value was calculated by a non-parametric Mann-Whitney rank sum test. ^∗p ≤ 0.05. Scale bar, 1 mm.

(B) Sox4 depletion results in shorter body length. Data are presented as in (A). ^∗∗∗∗p ≤ 0.0001. Scale bar, 1 mm.

(C) Sox4 deficiency impairs brain development. Top left, pictures showing that sox4 MO injections lead to a small brain area (dotted line). Top right, pictures showing that Sox4 depletion results in underdevelopment of the fore- and mid-brain, but not hindbrain (white vertical lines separated by a horizontal dotted line). Bottom panels, data quantification performed as in (A). n, number of embryos. ^∗∗∗∗p ≤ 0.0001; ^∗∗p ≤ 0.01; n.s., not significant.