Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 3 pp 855—873

Figure 3. Age dependent loss of Lin28 in hub cells. (A) Adult testis stained with Lin28 (green) and FasIII (red) in an age dependent manner. Lin28 level, but not FasIII, is decreased in old testis. Scale 10µm. (B) Comparison of the level of intensity of green signal (Lin28 expression) in young (0-1 Day) vs old testis (50 Day). (C) Comparison for the transcript levels of lin28 in young (0-1 Day) and old (40 Days) wildtype testis, showing the reduction in Lin28 levels with age. (D) Hub cell number is not decreased in old testis when Lin28 is overexpressed (upd-Gal4>UAS-lin28) as compared to wild type testis. Testis were stained with Vasa, Traffic Jam (TJ) and FasIII antibodies. Scale 10µm. (E) The number of hub cells in old testis is comparatively reduced in lin28 mutant testis compared to wildtype testis. The number of hub cells in old upd>lin28 (upd-Gal4>UAS-lin28) testis is similar to a young wild type testis (data from Table S1). (F) The number of GSCs in 50-day old wildtype, lin28 mutant and upd>lin28 (upd-Gal4>UAS-lin28) testis (data from Table S1). (G) Comparison of the number of hub cells in wildtype vs adult specific overexpression of Lin28 in an age dependent manner (upd-GAl4; tubGAL80ts: UAS-lin28). Overexpression of Lin28 clearly increases the number of hub cells and with age the number of hub cells is maintained when lin28 is maintained compared to loss of hub cell in wildtype testes with age. (H) Comparison of the number GSCs in wildtype testes and adult specific over expression of Lin28 in hub cells. The number of GSCs reciprocates the number of cell number. * denotes, P<0.05. ** denotes P<0.01, *** denotes P<0.001, and **** denotes 0.0001.