Proteomic and Transcriptomic Analysis of Neural Cell Fate in Developing Xenopus laevis Embryos and Explants

Purpose: Study the developing neural cell fate of the D1 blastomere in the 8-cell embryo. Determine what transcripts are dependant on cell/cell signaling and which are inherit to the single cell and do not depend on the rest of the embryo. Methods: D1 blastomere was either injected with fluorescent dye or explanted away from the developing embryo. Transcript profile was taken at 7 time points: 8-cell, 16-cell, 32-cell, blastula, gastrula, early neurula, and mid/late neurula. 3 biological triplicates were taken at each time point for both the dissect and explant condition. Results: Up until blastula stage, dissect and explant transcript profiles remain fairly similar. But following this the profiles completely diverge, with the dissect tissue heading towards the neural fate while the explant samples head towards an ectoderm/epithelial fate. Dissect tissue or explant mRNA profiles at 7 critical developmental timepoints, in triplicate, using Illumina NextSeq.