Transcriptomes analysis of mouse developing forelimb and hindlimb autopods

Transcriptomes of mouse embryonic autopods were generated detecting expression of approximately 26179 transcripts in the developing forelimb or hindlimb autopods, representing about 58 % of the probe sets on MOE-430 A/B GeneChip. Three biological replicate array experiments were finished for each condition and MAS5.0 signal were used to do data analysis. Forty-four transcripts with expression differences higher than 2-fold were detected(T test, P<0.05), including Tbx4, Tbx5, Hoxc10 and Pitx1 which were previously shown to be differentially expressed in developing forelimb and hindlimb bud by in situ hybridization and SAGE study (Margulies 2001). RTPCR and in situ experiments confirmed several top differentially expressed genes which were newly discovered by our experiments. Vast amount of transcripts and its family members such as Bmp, Fgf, Epha, Wnt, T-box and Hox families detected to be highly expressed or differentially expressed in developing autopods, suggesting that the complexity of transcriptomes of developing autopods and dynamic differential expression and differential combinations of gene expression signals in the developing limb tissue contributes to differences in forelimb versus hindlimb patterning. The differentially expressed genes are the essential factors for morphological diversification of developing limb structures.

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Shou S, Scott V, Reed C, Hitzemann R, Stadler HS