Identification of genes regulated by Erythroferrone (ERFE) in Xenopus embryos at tadpole stages.

RNA-seq was employed to analyze differential gene expression upon ERFE knockdown in Xenopus laevis embryos at three different developmental stages using two non-overlapping translation blocking morpholino oligonucleotides. Only a small number of genes was affected by both morpholinos and at more than one of the developmentel stages analyzed, among them gja4, the gene coding for Gap junction junction protein Alpha 4. Xenopus eight-cell stage embryos were injected with 10 ng ERFE-MO1 or 20 ng ERFE-MO2 into the four vegetal blastomeres and cultivated until stage 35/36, stage 37/38 or stage 41. Uninjected embryos as well as embryos injected with equal amounts of standard control morpholino (cMO) served as controls.