Knockdown of Sox7 together with Sox18 leads to a loss of circulation in the trunk and tail. (A) Targeting both Sox7 and Sox18 using different sets of morpholinos (4 ng of each) prevents trunk circulation in morphants. Sox7 or Sox18 knockdown alone shows no effect. (B) Left panel: Microangiography analyses to assess the functional integrity of the vasculature of 48 hpf control and Sox7/Sox18 morphants. The main axial vessels of double morphants embryos, injected with 4 ng of MO1 Sox18 and 4 ng of MO1 Sox7, show no uptake of the fluorescent dye whereas circulation in the head is not affected. Right panel: Normal Fli1 expression in Sox7/Sox18 knockdown embryos reveals no vascular apparent defect in the posterior vasculature at 28 hpf. (C) Lateral views of the trunk and tail, shown with anterior to the left, of embryos at 28 hpf. As evidenced by whole mount in situ with specific riboprobes, no significant difference in the vasculogenic expression of Fli1, Tie1, Tie2 is observed between control embryos and Sox7/Sox18 double morphants. There is a mild decrease in Flk1 expression at that particular stage but not at earlier time points (data not shown).
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