Zbtb20-mediated repression of genes in developing CA1 pyramidal neurons

The transcriptional repressor Zbtb20 is essential for specification of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. Moreover, ectopic expression of Zbtb20 is sufficient to transform subicular and retrosplenial areas of D6/Zbtb20S mice to CA1. We used microarrays to identify genes that are repressed by Zbtb20 in developing CA1 pyramidal neurons in the CA1-transformed cortex of D6/Zbtb20S mice. For RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays, we isolated the CA1-transformed subiculum and retrosplenial cortex from postnatal day 1 D6/Zbtb20S mice, as well as corresponding areas from their wildtype littermates. Total RNA was extracted using the RNeasy Lipid Tissue Mini Kit (Qiagen). Each RNA sample represents a pool of RNA obtained from dissected tissues of seven animals.