Abstract
The effect of strain background on gene function in growth and development has been well documented. However, it has not been extensively reported whether the strain background affects the gene expression pattern. Here, we found that the expression of homeobox gene Meox-2 and FGF receptor 1 gene Fgfr1 during mouse palate development is strain-dependent. On the C57B6 inbred background, Meox-2 is expressed in the palatal outgrowth on Embryonic Day 11.5 (E11.5); the expression shifts posteriorly and is restricted to the back of palate on E14.5. On the Swiss Webster outbred background, Meox-2 expression covers both anterior and posterior regions with the same intensity from E12.5 to E14.5. On the Black Swiss background, Meox-2 expression also covers the entire palate A-P axis, but is much weaker in the anterior region on E14.5. Fgfr1 also displays distinct expression patterns in the palatal outgrowth on E11.5 in these three strains. On the Black Swiss outbred background, the expression is restricted to the anterior palatal outgrowth. In marked contrast, the expression in the Swiss Webster outbred strain is located exclusively in the posterior palate outgrowth on E11.5, whereas in the C57B6 inbred strain, the expression is undetectable in the palatal outgrowth on E11.5.
Highlights
Disruption of secondary palate development will lead to cleft palate, a common birth defect that affects1:700 births [1]
As a result of this effort, we reported in this study that Meox-2 and Fgfr1 displayed different expression patterns in mouse secondary palate development in C57B6, Black Swiss and Swiss Webster, three strains commonly used in mouse developmental biology studies
The day a vaginal plug observed was designated as Embryonic Day 0.5 (E0.5); it is very common for mouse embryos that the embryos on the same embryonic day could be developmentally varied, especially if the embryos are on a different strain background
Summary
Disruption of secondary palate development will lead to cleft palate, a common birth defect that affects. The two re-orientated palatal shelves grow horizontally towards each other to meet along the facial midline This contact induces the merging of the medial edge epithelium (MEE) of the two shelves to form the medial edge seam (MES) that will subsequently undergo degeneration, leading to mesenchymal confluence and the formation of a continuous palate, a process called palate fusion. In contrast to gene function studies, little effort has been made to analyze the effects of strain background on gene expression during mouse embryogenesis, either in secondary palate formation or in embryonic development in general. Of this effort, we reported in this study that Meox-2 and Fgfr displayed different expression patterns in mouse secondary palate development in C57B6, Black Swiss and Swiss Webster, three strains commonly used in mouse developmental biology studies This is the first study reporting a given gene that displays distinct expression patterns, not levels, on different strain background during embryonic development
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