Cranial neural crest cells of E11.5 wild type and FAK mutants (valle-affy-mouse-480721). Mus musculus

Cranial neural crest cells (NCC) give rise to the majority of the cartilage, bone, connective tissue, and sensory ganglia in the head, and also participate in the remodeling of the cardiac outflow tract and pharyngeal arch arteries during cardiovascular development. Our preliminary results show that targeted deletion of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in murine NCC results in cardiovascular and craniofacial alterations, resembling human congenital heart diseases The objective of this project is to elucidate the underlying mechanisms by which FAK mediates NCC function during development. Compare gene expression in cranial neural crest cells of E11.5 wild type and FAK mutants. FAK is a tyrosine kinase that transduces integrin and growth factor signaling pathways. Abnormal growth factor signaling leads to cardiovascular malformations caused by deficient cardiac NCC function. However, a direct role for FAK in NCC morphogenesis has not been demonstrated. We will test the hypothesis that FAK is a downstream target of essential growth factor signaling in cranial neural crest cells during development. 1) Generate E11.5 mouse embryos that are either control (FAK+/flox) or NCC specific FAK knockout (Wnt1Cre;FAKflox/flox). 2) Determine genotype by PCR. 3) Dissect head and torax from the different genotypes. 4) Obtain NCC from dissected tissue by magnetic cell sorting using p75 antibody. 5) Prepare total RNA from speciments. We will pool the NCC from 3 different embryos of the same genotype, and send total RNA to TGEN for probe preparation, hybridization and array result analysis. Keywords: other