Figure 6.
mex-3 mRNA Is Distributed Asymmetrically in Early Embryos. Light micrographs of a wild-type hermaphrodite gonad (A) and early embryos (C-G) stained for
mex-3 mRNA by in situ hybridization (positive staining appears purple in photos).(A)
mex-3 mRNA is detected in the syncytial core of the gonad (small arrow) and in mature oocytes (large arrow).(B) Schematic diagram of (A). Open circles correspond to nuclei.(C) Early 1-cell embryo.(D) Late 1-cell embryo. Arrow points to polar body marking the anterior pole.(E) 2-cell embryo.
mex-3 mRNA is more abundant in AB (arrowhead) than P1.(F) 4-cell embryo. Arrowheads point to the AB daughters.(G) 28-cell embryo.
mex-3 mRNA, like many other maternal mRNAs, persists only in the germ cell precursor P4 (large arrow) and its sister D (small arrow, see Seydoux and Fire 1994).(H) Wild-type 4-cell stage embryo hybridized with a
mex-3 sense RNA probe; compare with (F).