Danielle Rux, Graduate Student (Wellik laboratory), Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan Medical School

Hox genes are critical regulators that establish the body plan during embryonic development.  Specifically, Hox11 patterns the musculoskeletal system of the limbs.  This image is of Hox11-expressing cells in the wrist and forearm bones of a two-week old mouse.  This mouse expresses a green fluorescent tag (GFP) in cells that express Hoxa11.  The tissue section shown in this image was co-stained for Tartrate Resistant Acid Posphatase (TRAP) to identify osteoclasts or bone-resorbing cells. The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether osteoclasts express Hoxa11. This image shows that while they are very close to one another, there is not overlap between these two populations.