Novel mouse embryonic renal marker gene products differentially expressed during kidney development. Kretzler, Matthias, Guang Fan, Demian Rose, Lois J. Arend, Josephine P. Briggs, and Lawrence B. Holzman. Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 -0676
APStracts 3:0102F, 1996.
Investigators approaching the problem of renal organogenesis have been hampered by a paucity of suitable molecular markers that specify distinct developmental phenotypes. To identify such markers, differential display-PCR (DD-PCR) was used to survey the temporal pattern of gene expression in mouse kidney at 11.5, 13.5, 15.5, and 17.5 days after conception and in the adult kidney. Twenty-two differentially expressed amplification products were identified, isolated, and sequenced. Seventeen clones showed no significant similarity with previously reported nucleotide sequences; two were similar to two housekeeping gene products, and three were similar to human or rat expressed sequence tags. To confirm the differential expression patterns observed by DD-PCR, semi-quantitative reverse transcription-PCR was performed using sequence-specific oligonucleotide primers. Nineteen of 22 clones were differentially expressed during kidney development (MERM 1-19). The value of MERMs as developmental markers was further assessed in mouse metanephric organ culture where the pattern of MERM transcript expression mimicked that observed in vivo. Therefore, the DD-PCR method permitted development of a panel of marker sequences that can be used to characterize renal developmental processes and that may allow the identification of novel, functionally relevant gene products.

Received 21 February 1996; accepted in final form 16 May 1996.
APS Manuscript Number F60-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Renal Fluid Electrolyte
Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 5 June 96