Gene expression profiling in mouse strains carrying a knockout mutation in the vomeronasal receptor gene Vmn2r1

The NanoString multiplex gene expression platform was applied to examine changes in V2R gene expression in total RNA samples from the vomeronasal organ of mice of gene-targeted strains ΔC1 and ΔC1-GFP, which each carry a knockout mutation in the Vmn2r1 gene. There is significant decrease in the expression level of various V2R genes that are normally coexpressed with Vmn2r1. We designed a custom CodeSet Pao of NanoString probes, which includes probes for 69 V2R genes, covering a half of the mouse V2R gene repertoire, and for nine non-classical class I MHC H2-Mv genes. Total RNA samples from whole vomeronasal mucosae of mice from the ΔC1 and ΔC1-GFP strains were used. Six homozygous mutant mice and six wild-type littermate from each strain were analyzed in one cartridge.