Figure 1. Expression of MeCP2 in the developing Xenopus laevis visual system. (A) Endogenous expression of Xenopus MeCP2 mRNA in the tectum and retina of stage 40 and stage 45 Xenopus tadpoles is shown by the RT-PCR reaction products. A single band of the expected molecular weight was observed. Expression of the housekeeping gene x-GAPDH is also shown for comparison. DNA molecular weight markers are shown to the left (M, in base pairs). (B) MeCP2 protein expression in the retina and optic tectum of Stage 40 tadpoles. Left panel: MeCP2 immunopositive cells (green) are localized to the ganglion cell layer (gcl) and inner nuclear layer (inl) of the developing retina. The retinal synaptic layers are shown by the immunostaining with an antibody to VAMPII (red). Right panel: Coronal section of a stage 40 tadpole at the level of the optic tectum shows MeCP2 expression in neurons (green) close to the tectal neuropil (n), which is visualized by VAMPII immunostaining (red). V = ventricle. Scale bar = 500 mm. (C, D) Transfection with human wild-type hMeCP2 constructs was used to alter expression of MeCP2 in postmitotic Xenopus tectal neurons at the onset of synaptic differentiation. C) Expression of wt-hMeCP2 was confirmed in triple transfected neurons co-expressing DsRed2, PSD-95-GFP and wthMeCP2 as illustrated here by the overlaid live confocal image (overlay), and the red (DsRed2) and green (PSD95-GFP) fluorescence as well as the MeCP2 immunofluorescence (blue) after fixation. D) Tectal neuron transfected with DsRed2 and a wt-hMeCP2-IRES-GFP plasmid. Live confocal imaging shows colocalization of DsRed2 (red) and GFP (green) in the nucleus, cell body, and primary dendrite. Retrospective immunostaining with an antibody directed to human wild-type MeCP2 shows the localization of the MeCP2 protein to the nucleus and proximal portion of the primary dendrite (blue). Scale bar for C, D= 10 mm. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033153.g001
Image published in: Marshak S et al. (2012)
Marshak et al. Creative Commons Attribution license
| Gene | Synonyms | Species | Stage(s) | Tissue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mecp2.S | X. laevis | Throughout NF stage 40 | neuron retina optic tectum eye retinal neural layer retinal ganglion cell layer retinal ganglion cell | |
| vamp2.S | syb2, sybii, synaptobrevin 2, synaptobrevin2, vamp-2, vamp2-a, vamp2-b | X. laevis | Throughout NF stage 40 | retina optic tectum lens eye retinal inner plexiform layer |
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