Identifying an Apical Ectodermal Ridge (AER) signature in embryonic day 11.5 mouse forelimb.. Mus musculus

The apical ectodermal ridge (AER) is a transient ectodermal population of cells that defines the dorso-ventral border of the developing limb bud. It functions as a major signaling centre that, through the secretion of various growth factors including FGF8, instructs the growth and patterning of the developing limb. We have identified that the AER expresses markers of cellular senescence and wanted to examine if there was any overlap with oncogene-induced senescence, an adult form of senescence induced in premalignant lesions. To achieve this, we microdissected the AER from embryonic day 11.5 mouse embryos. In addition, we collected the surface ectoderm from the proximal limb bud, that was not senescent and profiled both populations, to identify those genes that are enriched in the AER Overall design: The AER was microdissected from embryonic day 11.5 mouse forelimb. Surface ectoderm from the posterior limb was used as a comparative control. Samples from 2-3 mice were pooled for each replicate, for 3-4 replicates.