Fig. 4

c-Kit signaling is necessary for maintaining residual type II cells upon discontinuation of Rspo supply to taste bud organoids. a Schematic illustration of the timeline for the taste bud organoid experiments. b Representative bright field microscopic images of taste bud organoids cultured under control, −Rspo, +Ima, and −Rspo+Ima conditions. c Organoid morphometric analysis. Each dot represents the perimeter of one organoid, and the red lines indicate the median. (n > 200 per condition). One-way ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni corrections. d Representative confocal images of taste bud organoids cultured under each condition, dual-immunostained with either anti-NTPdase2 (green) and anti-Car4 (red) or anti-PLCβ2 (green) and anti-c-Kit (red). DAPI (blue) was used for counterstaining nuclei. Scale bars, 100 μm. e Proportional area index (PAI, left) and normalized PAI (right). Data indicate means ± SEM (n > 90 per condition). One-way ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni corrections. f Proportional emergence index (PEI, left) and normalized PAI (right). Anti-NTPdase2 (red), anti-Car4 (blue), anti-PLCβ2 (green), and anti-c-Kit (yellow). Data indicate means ± SEM (n > 90 per condition). One-way ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni corrections. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. ns not significant