Fig. 1

Agarose gels of qRT-PCR products. For each Notch component gene (receptors, ligands and effectors; plus negative control), four representative embryos of each developmental stage (3.5 dpc compact morulae, blastocysts and expanded blastocysts, and 4.5 dpc hatched blastocysts) are shown. For each pluripotency and differentiation gene markers, two representative embryos of each developmental stage are shown. Ladder: DNA ladder with 50 bp increments; the arrow (→) signals the 50 bp mark; C+: positive control gene; for each analyzed gene, a tissue sample known to transcribe the analyzed gene was added, and the qRT-PCR reaction product added in the gel (see Methods section for details); NTC: non-template control