新方法可监测线虫基因表达过程
研究人员在日前在线出版的《自然—方法学》（Nature Methods）期刊上报告，他们设计了一套系统，可以自动生成，从而能监督像秀丽隐杆线虫(简称线虫)胚胎发育过程中的基因表达。
发育生物学的主要目标是了解单个受精卵分裂成多个细胞的发育过程。这将有助于鉴别细胞发育阶段所表达的每个基因。线虫是一种理想的发育生物学研究模式动物，因为它既透明又简单，而且它的发育过程已经被定义。
Waterston和同事用一种自动成像方法来监测四种有荧光指标的基因的表达时间和表达水平，每种基因都负责编码线虫胚胎中一种重要的转录因子。他们精确鉴别出350多个细胞发育过程中的相关基因表达，基本上涵盖了胚胎的整个细胞分裂过程。
新方法为系统分析更多基因的受体奠定了基础，它将有助于揭示细胞分裂每个过程中的基因表达。
推荐原始出处：
Nature Methods，5, 703 - 709，John Isaac Murray，Robert H Waterston
Automated analysis of embryonic gene expression with cellular resolution in C. elegans
1 Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1705 NE Pacific Street, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
2 Present address: Developmental Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, 1275 York Avenue, New York, New York 10065, USA.
3 These authors contributed equally to this work.
We describe a system that permits the automated analysis of reporter gene expression in Caenorhabditis elegans with cellular resolution continuously during embryogenesis. We demonstrate its utility by defining the expression patterns of reporters for several embryonically expressed transcription factors. The invariant cell lineage permits the automated alignment of multiple expression profiles, allowing direct comparison of the expression of different genes' reporters. We also used this system to monitor perturbations to normal development involving changes both in cell-division timing and in cell fate. Systematic application of this system could reveal the gene activity of each cell throughout development.
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