miR-205 is expressed during thymic ontogeny and maintained in the adult thymus.

(A) X-gal staining was performed on transverse sections of e14.5 miR-205^lacZ embryos to identify patterns of miR-205 transcription. (B) Whole-mount X-gal staining was performed on a dissected e18.5 miR-205^lacZ embryo (left) and positive lacZ reporter activity was observed in the thymus (arrow). A dissected and stained miR-210^lacZ embryo (right) is shown as a negative control for lacZ activity in the thymus. These images have been published previously at http://rna.keck.ucsf.edu/sites/rna.keck.ucsf.edu/files/205_E18.5_051510_24.jpg. (C) Thymic sections from an e18.5 miR-205^lacZ embryo were cut and then stained with X-gal. Arrows indicate positive lacZ reporter activity in a subset of cells in the thymus. (D)in situ hybridization for miR-205 was performed on frozen thymic sections from 6–8 week old B6 wildtype mice. Serial sections were hybridized using either a miR-205 probe or a scramble probe. Image pairs from two samples are shown. Scale bars = 200 μm. (E-F) Sorted thymic subsets from either Aire^+/+(E) or Aire^-/-(F) mice were analyzed by qPCR for miR-205 expression. Both genotypes carried the Aire-GFP (Adig) allele to facilitate the sorting of Aire⁺/GFP⁺ and Aire^-/GFP^- mTEC subsets. Reactions were standardized to sno202 and then normalized to CD45⁺ cells with error bars depicting mean ±SD.