Gene expression profiling from whole VNOs after tfap2eCre-mediated Smad4 ablation in immature basal vomeronasal neurons and OMPCre-mediated Smad4 ablation in all mature vomeronasal neurons

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) of mice contains two main types of vomeronasal sensory neurons (VSNs)- Apical and Basal. Apical VSNs express vomeronasal receptors (VRs) of the V1R family and project to the anterior accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) and VSNs in the basal portions of the epithelium express receptors of the V2R family and project to the posterior portion of the AOB. In the vomeronasal epithelium of mice we found active BMP signaling. By generating Smad4 conditional mutants we disrupted canonical TGF-b/BMP signaling in either maturing basal VSNs or in mature apical and basal VSNs. We compared transcriptome of controls- Smad4flox/flox and AP-2eCre+/- to conditional knockout AP-2eCre+/-/Smad4flox/flox in order to analyze the changes in gene expression when Smad4 is ablated in immature Basal VSNs. We also compared transcriptome of controls- Smad4flox/flox and OMPCre+/- to conditional knockout OMPCre+/-/Smad4flox/flox to investigate role of Smad4 mediated transcription in mature Apical and Basal VSNs.