Development of the embryonic head: Modelling the impact of WNT signalling activity on the differentiation of epiblast cells to neural progenitors [Dkk]

The modulation of WNT activity is critical for the specification of the anterior (head) tissue progenitors in the multipotent early epiblast and the repression of WNT activity enhances the ectoderm lineage potency of the epiblast cells and poises the activation of endogenous WNT activity that drives neurogenesis during head morphogenesis. For the microarray analysis, E7.75 embryos were collected and dissected along the antero-posterior axis. Dkk+/+ and Dkk-/- strains were used in this experiment.