Expression profiling of retinoic acid targets in lateral mesoderm from Xenopus laevis embryos. Expression profiling of retinoic acid targets in lateral mesoderm from Xenopus laevis embryos

Renal precusors of the Xenopus pronephros arise from dorso-lateral mesoderm at the early neurula stage. This process is under the control of retinoic acid (RA). We have used microarrays to identify RA targets in dorso-latearl mesoderm by performing differential expression analysis between control and RA-depleted situations Overall design: mRNA encoding GFP (control) or a mix of GFP and RA-catabolizing enzyme cyp26 (RA-depleted) were microinjected in 4-cell stage embryos. Lateral marginal zone (LMZ) explants were dissected at the early gastrula stage and cultured for 1h (early gastrula), 3 h (mid-gastrula) or overnight (early neurula)