Fig. 4

Akt1 morphants exhibit upregulation of HuC/D expression with simultaneous downregulation of neurogenin1 expression.

(A) During the bud stage, injection with akt1 morpholinos upregulated the expression of elavl3 compared with the controls. (B) HuC/D-expressing post-mitotic neurons increased massively in akt1 morpholino-injected embryos, as shown by immunohistochemical analysis with anti-Hu antibody at 24 hpf. Note the ectopic HuC/D expression in the ventricular zone (arrows in insert panels). (C) At the same stage, neurogenin1 expression was reduced significantly by Akt1 knockdown. (D) Levels of HuC/D expression were confirmed by Western blot analysis and are quantified in the top panel. (E) qPCR analysis further confirmed the decreased expression of neurogenein1 at 24 hpf (C) in akt1 morpholino-injected embryos. All phenotypes could be rescued by concomitant injection with akt1 mRNA but not a tp53 morpholino. **, p<0.01.