A global view of gene expression in the preimplantation mouse embryo: morula versus blastocyst.
As a first step to understand preimplantation development, we performed global gene-expression profiling of morula and blastocyst using the NIA 15k mouse cDNA microarray. Gene expression levels were measured four times for blastocyst and five times for morula. Student's t-test at the 5% significance level identified 428 genes upregulated and 748 downregulated in blastocyst compared to morula. This trend was consistent with semi-quantative RT-PCR analysis of sample genes. The upregulated genes known to be involved in critical regulatory processes, included Mist1, Id2, Hd1, and Requiem; the downregulated genes included CREB-binding protein, Per3, zinc finger protein 217, Krox-25, and miwi1. Such well-characterized genes and many novel genes provide markers for early stages in development and starting materials for further functional studies.
Tanaka
Tetsuya S
TS
Developmental Genomics and Aging Section, Laboratory of Genetics, National Institute on Aging, NIH, 333 Cassell Drive, Suite 3000, Baltimore, MD 21224-6820, USA.
Ko
Minoru S H
MS
D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst; D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D017931:DNA Primers; D018076:DNA, Complementary