Fig. 8: Oct4 must be downregulated by NR6A1 prior to NCC formation.
From: NR6A1 is essential for neural crest cell specification, formation and survival
A scRNA-seq of cranial tissue from Wnt1-Cre;R26R-eYFP and Mef2c-F10n-LacZ embryos shows a transcriptional signature isolating pluripotency-associated gene expression to neural ectodermal (NE) cells compared to NCC. Any expression of Oct4 and Nanog is restricted to a very small population of NE cells (see dot size for percent expressed). B In situ hybridization of NCC-specifier and EMT genes (purple stain) in Oct4/rtTA embryos treated with doxycycline (+Dox) as compared to untreated embryos (-Dox). Consistent with the Nr6a1 null embryos, NCC and EMT marker expression is no longer present through the cranial mesenchyme of the embryos, indicating a disruption in NCC formation. Note that some images in this figure were reflected to match the overall orientation of all other images in the figure. A minimum of 3 control and 3 Oct4 overexpressing embryos were assayed for each in situ hybridization marker.
