Fig. 4.

Role of sex-specific region of Dsx in apoptosis. (A,B) Compared with controls (n=10) (A,A′), induction of Dsx^F in mid-L2 (B-B″) activates F3B3-lacZ in NBs of the anterior CNS in late L2 (n=14) (Fig. S2F for TS protocol). (C) Induction of F3B3-lacZ in thoracic NBs in response to ectopic expression of Dsx^F. (D,E,H) Compared with controls, misexpression of both Dsx^F (n=17) and Dsx^CR (n=12) cause induction of F3B3-lacZ (D″ vs E″; D″ vs H″) as well as NB apoptosis in the anterior CNS at late L3 (D vs E; D vs H) (Fig. S2B for TS protocol). (F) Ectopic expression of Dsx^M (n=11) in the anterior CNS (F‴) represses the leaky expression of F3B3-lacZ in thoracic segments (F″) and does not cause apoptosis of thoracic NBs (F). (G) Dsx^M also represses F3B3-lacZ (n=12) (G″) and blocks apoptosis of abdominal NBs (G). (I) Simultaneous overexpression of Dsx^F and knockdown of AbdB in the female VNCs (n=8) blocks apoptosis of tNBs (Fig. S2A for TS protocol), suggesting that both AbdB and Dsx^F are required for NB apoptosis. Both male and female VNCs were analysed. Representative data and images are shown here are from males, except in F,G,I where only female data is shown. n number of VNCs analysed. Yellow arrowheads indicate NBs. Scale bars: 20 µm for A,B,D-H; 10 µm for C,I. All images are single confocal sections except panels D,E,F,H.