Gene expression changes caused by YAP overexpression and Nf2 deletion in the developing mouse brain

The transcriptional coactivator YAP is the key downstream effector of the Hippo pathway. YAP overexpression in the developing mouse brain results in excessive expansion of the neural progenitor pool and severe perturbation of brain development. Nf2/Merlin is a tumor suppressor whose mutations are found in many human cancers. Loss of Merlin during brain development causes overexpansion of the neural progenitor pool. We used microarrays to identify the gene expression changes caused by YAP overexpression and Nf2 deletion. We used a double-transgenic system to overexpress YAP in the developing mouse brain by crossing mice carrying a doxycycline-dependent allele of YAP1-S127A (TetO-YAP1) with those expressing the reverse tetracycline-dependent transactivator rtTA under the control of the neural progenitor-specific Nestin promoter (Nes-rtTA) and feeding the dam with doxycycline-containing food (200 mg/kg) from E7.5. We conditionally deleted Nf2 using the telencephalon-specific Emx1-Cre.