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Published November 15, 1997 | public
Journal Article

Heterogeneous Expression of Multiple Putative Patterning Genes by Single Cells from the Chick Hindbrain

Abstract

The metameric organization of the vertebrate hindbrain into rhombomeres appears to result from the patterned expression of several transcription factors and putative signaling molecules. We have applied a refined single-cell reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction strategy to examine the molecular logic proposed to pattern the hindbrain at the single-cell level. This technique allows analysis of the concurrent expression of several genes within an individual cell at higher sensitivity than byin situhybridization. Our results demonstrate that cells in rhombomere (r) 4 and r5 are heterogeneous in their expression of Hoxa-3, Hoxb-2, Sek-1, and Krox-20, suggesting that single cells are dynamically regulating their rhombomere-specific gene-expression profiles. Furthermore, the strong correlation between Sek-1 and Krox-20 expression at stage 12 was greatly diminished by stage 16, suggesting that the proposed interdependence of these two genes is present only at early stages of hindbrain development.

Additional Information

© 1997 Academic Press. Received 6 February 1997, Accepted 13 August 1997, Available online 19 April 2002. We thank Dr. Robb Krumlauf and Dr. David Wilkinson for their helpful advice and for providing probes for in situ hybridization studies. We also thank Dr. E. Davidson, Dr. D. Crotty, and Dian De Sha for critically reading the manuscript; M. D. Flowers, Dr. G. R. Belford, R. Colburn, and Dr. Yinong Zhang for technical assistance; and Dr. Yoshi-hisa Kubota for providing advice on statistical analysis. This work was supported by grants from the International Human Frontier Science Program (LT-186/94) to K.K., NSF Grant IBN-9319355 to M.A.S., and NIH Grants MH49176 and AR47671 to S.E.F., NS27501 and NS30109 to D.K.O'D., and NS33213 to M.A.S.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 18, 2023