Gene expression profiling of the palate in Erk2 mutant mouse models

The overall goal of this project is to investigate the role of Erk2-mediated signaling in regulating the cellular metabolism of cranial neural crest (CNC) cells during palate development. Here, we conducted gene expression profiling of palate tissue from wild type mice as well as those with a neural crest specific conditional inactivation of the Erk2 gene. The latter mice exhibit micrognathia, tongue defects and cleft palate, which is among the most common congenital birth defects and observed in many syndromic conditions. To investigate the adverse effects of dysfunctional ERK signaling on the cellular metabolism of palatal mesenchyme during palatogenesis, we analyzed mice with a neural crest cell-specific conditional inactivation of Erk2 (Erk2fl/fl;Wnt1-Cre). We performed microarray analyses of primary mouse embryonic palatal mesenchymal cells of Erk2fl/fl;Wnt1-Cre mutant mice and Erk2fl/fl control mice, collected at embryonic day 13.5 (n=3 per genotype) and E14.5 (n=5 per genotype).