Expression data from Tnrc6a (GW182) mutant yolk sac

GW182 (Tnrc6a) is a key component of RISC (miRNA-Induced Silencing Complex) that plays a critical role in miRNA-mediated gene silencing. Here, we show that GW182 is expressed in the yolk sac endoderm, and that gene-trap disruption of GW182 leads to growth arrest of yolk sac endoderm, impaired hematopoiesis and embryonic lethality. To investigate roles of GW182 in the yolk sac endoderm, we assessed changes in mRNA expression in the yolk sac of E9.5 GW182gt/gt embryos using microarrays (Affymetrix). Yolk sac of wild type littermates and GW182gt/gt embryos at E9.5 was collected for total RNA isolation using Trizol (Invitrogen). RNAs were purified according to the manufacturer’s protocol before subjected to Mouse Gene 1.0 ST Whole Genome Array (Affymetrix) for mRNA expression profiling. Experiments were performed in triplicate. Differentially expressed mRNAs were identified using a two-sample t-test (P<0.05 considered significant).