Gene expression in mice with conditional over-activation of hedgehog signaling in the ovary

The objective of the study was to determine the cause of anovulation in transgenic mice with conditional over-activation of the hedgehog signaling pathway in the ovary. In Amhr2(cre/+)-SmoM2 transgenic mice, a constitutively active version of the hedgehog signal transducer, smoothened (SMO), known as SMOM2, is expressed in the ovary following cre-mediated recombination. The hypothesis tested is that changes in the neonatal ovary caused by over-activation of hedgehog signaling leads to the life-long anovulation phenotype in transgenic mice. Microarrays were used to examine differences in gene expression in ovaries of two day old wild-type mice (Amhr2(+/+)-SmoM2) and transgenic mice (Amhr2(cre/+)-SmoM2) in which the hedgehog signaling pathway was conditionally over-activated in the ovary. Two microarrays were performed. RNA samples were prepared from ovaries of 8 Amhr2(+/+)-SmoM2 control mice and 8 Amhr2(cre/+)-SmoM2 mutant mice on day two of age. RNA quality was assessed by measurement of ribosomal RNA on an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer.