Effect of epithelial depletion of Wnt10a on gene expression alteration during tooth root furcation development

In our previous study, the knockout of Wnt10a in dental epithelium resulted in the occurrence of taurodontism and root furcation defects, suggesting that epithelial Wnt10a was a pivotal signal to guide root furcation patterning. Nevertheless, the exact mechanisms within dental epithelium leading root furcation development remained to be deeply elucidated. To explore the downstream molecular alterations caused by epithelial Wnt10a ablation, we conducted RNA-Seq of molar epithelium tissue from furcation region. Three pairs of biological replicates (pooling dental epithelium from 4 first mandibular molars as 1 sample) of the RNA samples were collected from K14-Cre;Wnt10aflox/flox and Wnt10aflox/flox mice at PN2.5.在本课题组既往研究中，牙上皮内Wnt10a基因敲除可引发牛牙症（taurodontism）与根分叉缺陷，提示上皮源性Wnt10a是调控根分叉模式形成的关键信号分子。然而，牙上皮内介导根分叉发育的确切分子机制仍有待深入阐明。为探究上皮Wnt10a敲除所引发的下游分子变化，我们对根分叉区域的磨牙上皮组织开展了RNA-Seq分析。实验于出生后第2.5天（PN2.5）采集K14-Cre;Wnt10aflox/flox与Wnt10aflox/flox小鼠的RNA样本，共设置3对生物学重复，每份样本通过混合4个下颌第一磨牙的牙上皮组织制备得到。