Figure 1

tap encodes a Tudor domain protein and localizes to the nuage. (A) Schematic representation of the Tap and Tej proteins and their respective mouse orthologs, TDRD7 and TDRD5. Tap has three Tudor domains and a Tejas/Lotus domain in the C- and N-termini, respectively. (B) Schematic representation of the tap genomic locus. The tap gene is predicted to be transcribed in to five isoforms. The area between the green lines represents the deleted region in tap¹²⁵. (C) RT-PCR showing a truncated transcript in tap¹²⁵ ovaries. Primers 1, 2 and 3, which were used for RT-PCR, are indicated in (B) by the red arrowheads at the top. (D) Western blotting analysis using anti-Tap antibody detected a single band of approximately 110 KDa, which is closer to the predicted Tap size. The antibody could not detect a band at same position in tap¹²⁵-mutant ovaries. (E,F) Ovaries immunostained for Tap (green) and Vas (red). (E) Tap localizes to the perinuclear nuage with Vas. Scale bar =20 μm. Insets show a closer view of a single nurse cell nucleus. (F) Tap was undetectable in tap¹²⁵-mutant ovaries. Scale bar =5 μm.