Whole Transcriptome Data from Embryonic Mouse Limb-Buds

Limb development is a powerful model to investigate transcriptional complexity during differentiation and development, as tissue types appear at various stages, with unique transcriptional signatures. So far, most studies have used conventional expression arrays, which can identify only a predetermined set of cDNAs. However there is growing evidence that most of the non-coding part of the genome is transcribed as well. We took advantage of genomic tiling arrays, which cover most of the mouse genome, to look at limb transcriptomes in an unbiased manner, by identifying all genic- and intergenic transcripts. We selected three developmental stages (E11.5 ; E13.5; E15.5), covering a large period of limb organogenesis, during which the limb evolves from a mostly homogenous mesenchymal cell population to more specialized tissue types such as cartilage, bone, muscle and skin. Two biological replicates for each of three time points (E11.5, E13.5, E15.5).肢体发育是探究分化与发育过程中转录复杂性的极佳模型，因为不同发育阶段会形成多种组织类型，且每种组织均具备独特的转录特征。迄今为止，多数相关研究采用传统表达芯片技术，这类技术仅能识别预先设定的互补脱氧核糖核酸（cDNA）集合。然而，越来越多的研究证据表明，基因组中绝大多数非编码区域同样会发生转录。本研究借助覆盖小鼠绝大多数基因组区域的基因组平铺芯片（genomic tiling array），以无偏倚的方式对肢体转录组进行分析，通过识别所有基因内及基因间转录本，全面解析肢体转录组特征。本研究选取了覆盖肢体器官发生主要阶段的三个发育时间点：小鼠胚胎发育第11.5天（E11.5）、第13.5天（E13.5）及第15.5天（E15.5）。在此期间，肢体从近乎均一的间充质细胞群逐步分化为软骨、骨、肌肉及皮肤等特化组织类型。三个时间点各设置两个生物学重复样本。