PDGF and FGF treatment in E13.5 MEPMs. Mus musculus

Receptor tyrosine kinase signaling is critical for mammalian craniofacial development, but the key downstream transcriptional effectors remain unknown. We demonstrate that SRF is induced by both PDGF and FGF signaling in mouse embryonic palatal mesenchyme cells, and Srf neural crest conditional mutants exhibit facial clefting accompanied by proliferation and migration defects. Srf and Pdgfra mutants interact genetically in craniofacial development, but Srf and Fgfr1 mutants do not. This signal specificity is recapitulated at the level of cofactor activation: while both PDGF and FGF target gene promoters show enriched genome-wide overlap with SRF ChIP-seq peaks, PDGF selectively activates a network of MRTF-dependent cytoskeletal genes. Collectively, our results identify a novel role for SRF in proliferation and migration during craniofacial development and delineate a mechanism of receptor tyrosine kinase specificity mediated through differential cofactor usage, leading to a unique PDGF-responsive SRF-driven transcriptional program in the midface. Overall design: Serum Starved MEPMs (4 replicates), 1 hr PDGF treated MEPMs (4 replicates), 1 hr FGF treated MEPMs (3 replicates)