Identification of differentially expressed genes in early inner ear development

The first morphological evidence of the developing ear is a thickened disk of ectoderm known as the otic placode. However, signals for otogenesis are present even before the otic placode is physically apparent. Several inductive signals have been identified through candidate gene approaches, but there are still many gaps in the signaling cascade of otogenesis. Presently the candidate gene approach has largely exhausted known candidates. This project compares the pre-otic domain with a control region that is competent, but not specified to form otic placode. The purpose of this work is to identify genes that are differentially expressed in the pre-otic domain in order to generate a list of novel candidate genes for otic placode induction. Two condition experiment, pre-otic domain vs. rostral control (competent but not specificied to form otic placode); Biological replicates: 4 replicates for each condition consisting of pooled samples from 7 bi-lateral tissue microdissection; dye swap