Fig. 1
From: Meis2 is essential for cranial and cardiac neural crest development
Generation of Meis2 -/- mice. a Scheme of the Meis2 gene with 11 exons (black rectangles) and position of loxP sites for Cre recombination. The homeodomain (HD) is encoded by exons 7-9. b Meis2-null (-/-) embryos were obtained by crossing Meis2 cKO with Hprt1-Cre mice. Left: Genotyping of Meis2-/- embryos using primers loxF, frtF and frtR illustrated in (a) (see also Methods). Right: Western blot analysis of E12.5 whole-embryo protein extracts with an anti-Meis2 antibody. c Mutant Meis2 mouse embryos at E14.5 display severe hemorrhaging. d The embryonic heart at E13 with persistent truncus arteriosus (PTA) in which the aortic and pulmonary arteries are not separated in Meis2-/-. A dashed line depicts the crossing of the separated aorta and pulmonary artery in the wild-type heart while this is not visible in the mutant outflow tract. e Immunohistochemical staining of Meis2 in the embryonic heart at E13 (transverse sections) illustrating its strong expression in the aortic (av) and pulmonary valves (pv). Aortic and pulmonary valves are missing in Meis2 mutants (arrowhead). f α-Smooth muscle actin (SMA) staining on transverse sections showing persistent truncus arteriosus with the fused aorta (ao*) and pulmonary artery (pa*) in Meis2-/-. Ao, ascending and descending aorta; pa, pulmonary artery; PTA, persistent truncus arteriosus