Gene expression profile of a C. elegans Anchor cell invading through Basement Membrane
Cell invasion through basement membrane is crucial for development and immune cell trafficking, and is misregulated in many human diseases, such as cancer.  Understanding the gene expression profile of invading cells is challening, because cell invasion events are often stochastic and rare. Thus, it has been difficult to isolate cells during the act of basement membrane invasion. Here, we have taken advantage of the stereotyped timing of anchor cell invasion in C. elegans, along with synchronized animal culturing, Fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS), and RNA-Seq and identified the gene expression profile of an invasive cell at the time of basement membrane breaching. Overall design: Comparing gene expression profiling analysis or RNA-seq data for C. elegans anchor cells and whole body cells.