Fig. 5: Antennapedia (Antp) can rescue the Ultrabithorax (Ubx)-mutant haltere phenotype upon Ubx-like expression profiles.
From: Hox dosage contributes to flight appendage morphology in Drosophila
a Illustrative SEM picture of adult wild-type haltere and expression of Ubx or Antp (green) in the wild-type haltere disc. Antp is weakly expressed in a few cells of the hinge (yellow arrow) and in surrounding mesodermal cells (yellow star). b Illustrative SEM picture and expression of Ubx or Antp (green) in the T2 wing-to-haltere transformed tissue in UbxHM homozygous individuals. 100% of individuals displayed the same phenotype. The wing-to-haltere transformation correlates with the loss of Antp and the gain of Ubx expression in the pouch. White star in the SEM picture indicates the normal posterior T3 haltere. c Illustrative SEM picture and expression of Ubx or Antp (green) in the T3 haltere-to-wing transformed disc of UbxLDN/abxpbxbx individuals. 100% of individuals displayed the same phenotype. Note the strong decrease of Ubx (within and outside the pouch) and the gain of Antp expression in the pouch (yellow arrows), which is reminiscent of the normal Antp profile in the wing pouch. The pouch region is outlined in the wing and haltere disc (yellow dotted line). Laser power (LP) is indicated. d Boxplot representation of the quantification of Ubx expression level in the pouch in the different genetic backgrounds (A: wild type; B: UbxHM; and C: UbxLDN/abxpbxbx). Boxplots indicate 25th and 75th percentiles, whiskers show ±1.5 × IQR and center line depicts median of two biological replicates, (minimum n = 15). e Illustrative SEM pictures of haltere rescue in the abxpbxbx/UbxGal4LDN background upon the exogenous expression of VC-Ubx (n = 16/17), VC-Abd-A (n = 15/17), Antp-VC (n = 12/17), and VC-Dfd (n = 10/10). f Immunostaining of the VC-Hox fusion proteins expressed in the abxpbxbx/UbxGal4LDN background with the GFP antibody recognizing the VC fragment40. The pouch region is outlined (yellow dotted line). f′ Boxplot representation of the quantification of the expression level of Hox fusion constructs in the haltere pouch, as deduced from the GFP immunostaining. Boxplots indicate 25th and 75th percentiles, whiskers show ±1.5 × IQR and center line depicts median of two biological replicates (minimum n = 10 discs). Laser power (LP) is indicated.
