Comparison of left and right cervical motoneurons transcriptome

Left and Right phrenic nerves, which innervate the left and right diaphragm muscles, exhibit different innervation patterns. This left/right (L/R) asymmetry is established at the onset of innervation by a developmental program that requires Nodal. Phenotype analysis suggests that the cervical motoneurons, which innervate the diaphragm, have a L/R imprint that contributes to set the L/R asymmetries of innervation. We used microarray to analyze the expression profile of left and right cervical motoneurons before diaphragm innervation Left and right cervical motoneurons pools were collected from E11.5 HB9::GFP mice embryos. Left and right pools were collected from the same sections to allow paired analysis. The three embryos were from the same litter to minimize expression changes due to variation of the developmental stages.支配左右膈肌的左右膈神经（phrenic nerve）呈现不同的神经支配模式。这种左右（L/R）不对称性在神经支配起始阶段由依赖于Nodal的发育程序所确立。表型分析显示，支配膈肌的颈髓运动神经元存在左右侧印记，这有助于确立神经支配的左右不对称性。我们采用微阵列（microarray）技术分析了膈肌神经支配前左右侧颈髓运动神经元的表达谱。实验中，我们从E11.5龄的HB9::GFP小鼠胚胎中采集左右侧颈髓运动神经元池。为开展配对分析，我们从同一组织切片中采集左右侧神经元池；且这三枚胚胎均来自同窝，以最小化因发育阶段差异导致的表达变化。