Identifying the targets of the pair-rule transcription factors Even-skipped and Runt in the late Drosophila blastoderm

It has long been appreciated that striped pair-rule transcription factor expression is necessary for convergent extension in the early Drosophila embryo, although the mechanisms that link these transcriptional regulators to planar polarity in this tissue have long been elusive. The goal of this study was to determine the transcriptional tragets of the pair-rule transcription factors Eve and Runt in Drosophila blastoderm embryos. We compared the transcriptional profiles of late blastoderm embryos injected with either water or dsRNAs against both eve and runt to identify differentially expressed genes that may directly contribute to the establishment of planar polarity during Drosophila convergent extension.