Figure 1

α-synuclein expression levels. A. cDNA array experiment using brain polyA⁺-RNA from a transgenic mouse and a wildtype littermate at the developmental time point E18.5. From all analyzed genes (approximately 9000 ESTs), only the expression of α-synuclein (GenBank W41663) was significantly altered (indicated by an arrow; differential expression factor 7.6x). The data are represented without background substraction. Expression is quantified as units of fluorescence intensity. Diagonals indicate differential expression by 2x and 10x, respectively.B. Northern blot of brain polyA⁺-RNA (500 ng per lane) from 129/Ola, ICR, and BL6JHUK mice at the developmental time points P0, P8, P15, and adult, probed with an α-synuclein 3'UTR probe. The α-synuclein transcript size is approximately 1.5 kB. RNA samples were pooled from 4 animals (at P0), or from 2 animals (at P8 and P15) from the same litter. After stripping the membrane was re-probed with an actin probe. C.Brain homogenate from 129/Ola, ICR, and BL6JHUK mice at P0, P8, P15, and adult age was separated by 15% SDS-PAGE (20 μg protein per lane). The Western blot membrane was simultaneously probed with the monoclonal anti α-synuclein and anti α-tubulin antibodies. Recognized protein bands have apparent molecular weights of approximately 19 kDa and 55 kDa, respectively.