Data from: Quantification of gene expression patterns to reveal the origins of abnormal morphogenesis

The earliest developmental origins of dysmorphologies are poorly
understood in many congenital diseases. They often remain elusive because
the first signs of genetic misregulation may initiate as subtle changes in
gene expression, which are hard to detect and can be obscured later in
development by secondary effects. Here, we develop a method to trace the
origins of phenotypic abnormalities by accurately quantifying the 3D
spatial distribution of gene expression domains in developing organs. By
applying geometric morphometrics to 3D gene expression data obtained by
Optical Projection Tomography, we determined that our approach is
sensitive enough to find regulatory abnormalities that have never been
detected previously. We identified subtle but significant differences in
the gene expression of a downstream target of the Fgfr2 mutation that were
associated with Apert syndrome, demonstrating that these mouse models can
further our understanding of limb defects in the human condition. Our
method can be applied to different organ systems and models to investigate
the etiology of malformations.