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Fig. 1. Temporal and spatial expression patterns of classical E-, C- and N-cadherins. (A) Real-time RT-PCR analysis of cDNA isolated from Xenopus embryos at different stages showing the temporal expression pattern of N- (red), E- (blue) and C- (yellow) cadherin. Green bars show levels of the loading control, ODC. (B) E-cadherin is expressed at st. 11 in animal cells at low levels (left panel), is lost from the dorsal (neural) ectoderm, but is expressed strongly in the ventral (non-neural) ectoderm at st. 13 (center two panels), and is expressed primarily in the lateral and basal regions of ventral ectoderm cells (right-hand panel). (C) C-cadherin is expressed in both neural and non-neural ectoderm of the neurula (left two panels), and is expressed primarily in the lateral and basal regions of the neural plate, but in the apical regions of the non-neural ectoderm (right-hand two panels). (D) N-cadherin is expressed in the neural, but not non-neural, ectoderm at st. 13 (left panel), primarily in the apical cytoplasm (right-hand panel). Dashed line demarcates junction between neural and non-neural ectoderm. (E) The distribution of N-cadherin in sections of a st. 40 embryo. White brackets in B-D indicate the ectoderm layer in each cross-section. CNS, central nervous system; HT, heart; N, notochord. Scale bars: 50 μm, except 200 μm in C (left) and 100 μm in C (right), D (left) and E. |
