Fig. 1

Fig. 1

Effects of recombinant human EGF (20 nM) on the expression of activin subunits inhbaa, inhbab and inhbb in the zebrafish ovary. (A) Effect of EGF on activin subunit expression in intact follicles. Follicles were treated with 20 nM EGF for 2 h before sampling for RNA extraction. (B) Time course of EGF effects on activin subunit expression in cultured follicle cells. The total treatment time was 4 h and EGF was added at different times towards the end of the treatment. The expression levels of activin subunits were normalized to the housekeeping gene ef1a. (C) Blockade of EGF effects by EGFR inhibitor AG1478. Zebrafish follicle cells were pre-treated with 5 μM AG1478 for 30 min prior to treatment with 20 nM EGF for 2 h. (D) EGF-stimulated phosphorylation of EGFR. The cells were sampled 5 min after EGF treatment at 20 nM. The relative mRNA levels were determined by real-time qPCR and normalized to the housekeeping gene ef1a. The values are the mean ± SEM (n = 3–4). **P < 0.01; ***P < 0.001 vs. respective control of each gene. Each graph is representative of three independent experiments.