Fig. 1. (A) Targeting strategy of PINCH2. Partial map of the PINCH2 wild-type and floxed alleles, and of the knockout allele after Cre recombination. Exons and loxP sites are indicated as rectangles and triangles, respectively. The DNA fragment sizes obtained after EcoRI restriction digest, as well as the probe used for Southern blotting are indicated. (B) Southern blot on DNA samples from offspring of a PINCH2^+/– intercross. (C) Northern blot on poly(A)⁺ RNA extracts from bladder. (D) Nonquantitative RT-PCR performed with primers hybridizing to exons 2 and 5 of the PINCH2 gene, respectively, and template RNA from bladder of PINCH2^+/+ and PINCH2^–/– littermates (negative image of the agarose gel). To test the efficiency of reverse transcription, the GAPDH cDNA was amplified and is shown below. (E) Western blot on protein extracts from bladder, kidney and liver of PINCH2^+/+ and PINCH2^–/– littermates mice.