RNAseq of mouse presomitic mesoderm segments along the anteroposterior embryo axis

Somitogenesis is the segmentation of the developing embryonic body axis into somites and is guided by oscillating genes, which create waves of expression that travel across the presomitic mesoderm (PSM) from posterior to anterior. Upon arrival of a wave at the PSM's anterior end, a new somite is formed. To identify genes that are expressed in a wave-like pattern we dissected the PSM of four different mouse embryos (pre-turned), separated the left and right sides, and divided each into five segments, from posterior to anterior (sampling sites 1 to 5). Each segment was used to construct libraries for high-throughput RNA-sequencing. For one embryo, we also sequenced two somites.