Global identification of retinoic acid regulated genes

Retinoic acid (RA) signaling plays a major role in controlling several developmental processes in vertebrate embryos. RA repression of caudal Fgf8 has emerged as a crucial mechanism through which RA controls body axis extension, somitogenesis, and spinal cord neurogenesis. The role of RA in Fgf8 repression is supported by mechanistic studies demonstrating direct RA repression through a nearby RA response element that recruits NCOR in an RA-dependent manner. RA is also required for balanced neuromesodermal progenitor differentiation needed for coordinated generation of mesodermal progenitors for somites and neural progenitors for spinal cord. As many pathways are controlled by RA, we performed RNA-seq analysis comparing wild-type embryos with Aldh1a2 mutants that lack the ability to produce RA. This analysis identified a few hundred genes whose expression is significantly altered when RA is absent, thus providing candidate genes for further analysis to discover RA-regulated genes essential for development. 2 samples were analyzed: one control and one test.维甲酸（Retinoic acid, RA）信号通路在调控脊椎动物胚胎的多项发育进程中发挥关键作用。RA对尾端Fgf8的抑制作用，已被证实是RA调控体轴延伸、体节发生以及脊髓神经发生的核心机制。该调控机制得到了机制研究的佐证：相关研究显示，RA可通过邻近的维甲酸应答元件以RA依赖的方式招募NCOR，从而直接抑制Fgf8的表达。此外，RA对于维持神经中胚层祖细胞的平衡分化不可或缺，该分化过程可协同产生体节发育所需的中胚层祖细胞与脊髓发育所需的神经祖细胞。鉴于RA可调控诸多信号通路，本研究开展了RNA测序（RNA-seq）分析，对比野生型胚胎与无法合成RA的Aldh1a2突变体胚胎的基因表达情况。该分析共筛选出数百个在RA缺失时表达发生显著改变的基因，为后续发掘发育过程中必需的RA调控基因提供了候选基因资源。本次分析共纳入2份样本：1份为对照样本，1份为实验样本。