Transcription profiling of zebrafish germ layer morphogenesis

In gastrulation, distinct progenitor cell populations are induced and sorted into the three germ layers ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm. In order to identify genes involved in germ layer specification and morphogenesis, we identified genes differentially expressed between ectodermal and mesendodermal progenitor cells. To do so, we first generated highly enriched pools of ectodermal and mesendodermal progenitor cells. Mesendodermal cells were generated by over-expressing the Nodal signal Cyclops in wild type embryos and ectodermal cells were taken from mz-one-eyed-pinhead (oep) mutant embryos. We then compared the transcriptome of ectodermal versus mesendodermal cells taken from embryos at 7 hours post fertilization (hpf). In wild type embryos at this stage (70% epiboly), the first ectodermal and mesendodermal progenitor cells have already been sorted into their respective germ layers and ingression of mesendodermal progenitors is still ongoing.

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Link V, Carvalho L, Castanon I, Stockinger P, Shevchenko A, Heisenberg CP