Identification of genes regulated by XOct-25 overexpression in Xenopus ectoderm

The Xenopus POU class V transcription factor XOct-25 has been shown to inhibit BMP-dependent epidermal differentiation and promote neural induction in the ectoderm during early embryogenesis. In order to identify genes that act downstream of XOct-25, transcriptional profile of Xenopus ectodermal cells overexpressing XOct-25 was compared with control cells by using a DNA microarray method. Two independent experiments. Each experiment contains ectodermal cells overexpressing XOct-25 and corresponding control cells. Xenopus embryos were injected at the 8-cell stage with mRNA encoding GR-XOct-25, a hormone-inducible version of XOct-25. Explants from stage 9 embryos were treated with or without dexamethazone (DEX) until the sibling embryos reached stage 10.5, when they were used for RNA extraction. The explants cultured without DEX was used as a control sample. biological replicates: Sample name XOct-exp 1, Sample name XOct-exp 2