WT1(Wilms’ tumor suppressor)is a zinc finger protein with transcriptional repressor activity on several growth factor and growth factor receptor genes.The very sensitive quantitative competitive RT PCR was used to investigate the expression of mRNA for WT1 in the developing ovarian follicles of Shaoxing duck.The results revealed that all follicles showed the expression of mRNA for WT1.The WT1 mRNA was highly expressed only in the small preantral follicles,and with far lower expression in the large follclies.The results suggest that WT1 may play an important role in early follicular development possibly by suppressing the activities of factors that stimulate follicle growth and differentiation in immature follicles.
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