Figure 1

Molecular structure and expression pattern of Xfz4S. (A) Nucleotide and amino acid sequences of Xfz4S. The nucleotide sequence of Exon1 of Xfz4 is in capital and that of Intron1 is in small letters. Two sets of primers (P1F/P1R and P2F/P2R) were used for detection of Xfz4S by RT-PCR. (B) Schematic diagram showing the structure of Xfz4 gene containing two exons (boxes) and one intron. The splicing variants, Xfz4S retaining the intron and the Xfz4 are shown. The coding regions of these splicing variants are indicated by closed boxes and the UTRs by open boxes. (C) Developmental RT-PCR of Xenopus embryos with indicated Nieuwkoop and Faber (NF) stages. Xfz4S mRNA is first detected after mid blastula transition and the expression persist into tadpole stages. Xfz4 mRNA is maternally supplied and is expressed in all stages of development studied. ODC is a loading control. (D) Spatial expression pattern of Xfz4 and Xfz4S in tailbud stage embryos (stage 34). The embryos were hybridized with digoxigenin labelled RNA probes for antisense Xfz4 (Xfz4-AS), antisense Xfz4-intronI (Xfz4S-AS) or sense probe for Xfz4-intronI (Xfz4S-S).