Fig. 2: Knockdown of multiple condensin subunits results in smaller adult heads.

a Diagram of the proteins that comprise the condensin I and condensin II complexes in Drosophila melanogaster. b, c, g) Female pupae expressing (b) UAS-GFP dsRNA, (c) smc2 dsRNA, or (g) cap-d2 dsRNA under the control of eyGAL4, GMRGAL4 were dissected from pupal cases and imaged. e, i, k Adult, female fly head sizes were measured from flies expressing control (UAS-GFP or UAS-mCherry) dsRNA or dsRNA targeting (e) smc2, (i) cap-d2, and (k) cap-h under the control of eyGAL4, GMRGAL4. The charts shown are representative of two independent experiments; each data point represents a single fly. P values were determined by performing two-tailed Mann–Whitney analyses. For (e), p = 0.0010. For (i), p = 0.0376. For (k), p = 0.0067. d, f, h, j, l qRT-PCR analyses of d, f smc2, h, j cap-d2, and l cap-h transcript levels were performed on cDNA generated from first instar larvae expressing control (UAS-GFP or UAS-mCherry) dsRNA or dsRNAs targeting the respective condensin subunit mRNA under the control of armGAL4. Transcripts were normalized to the housekeeping gene, rp49. The charts shown include technical replicates of samples collected from four independent experiments (~200 larvae per experiment, combined into one sample per genotype). P values were determined by performing two-tailed, unpaired t-tests. For (d), p = 0.0021. For (f), p = 0.0421. For (h), p ≤ 0.0001. For all experiments, error bars indicate standard deviations from the mean.