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SUMMARY:What's in a Wing? Transcriptome analysis of bat limb development -
  Mandy Mason\, NIMR\, London\, UK and University of Cape Town\, South Afri
 ca
DTSTART:20120222T130000Z
DTEND:20120222T140000Z
UID:TALK35741@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:26882
DESCRIPTION:What's in a Wing? Transcriptome analysis of bat limb developme
 nt\n\nBats\, the only mammals capable of powered flight\, have highly spec
 ialized\nlimbs. The 'hand-wing' of the bat has elongated metacarpals and p
 halanges\n(digits II to V) that support and control an expansive interdigi
 tal membrane\nduring flight. In contrast to this\, the short\, free\, claw
 ed digits\nof the foot are morphologically similar to the bat's free thumb
 . We used a\nnovel cross-species microarray approach to identify different
 ially\nexpressed (DE) genes between the bat fore- and hindlimb at developm
 ental\nCarollia stages (CS) 16 and CS17\, and between the bat (CS17) and m
 ouse\n(E13.5) forelimb. Small but robust groups of DE genes were identifie
 d.\nThese included a long non-coding (lnc) transcript of Meis2\, and the\n
 limb patterning gene Hoxd11 which were significantly over-expressed in the
 \nbat forelimb. These results have been validated using qRT-PCR and the\ne
 xpression pattern of these and associated genes examined using 'in situ'\n
 hybridisation on series of developmental stages in both bat and\nmouse. Th
 e results suggest that Meis2 and lncMeis2 may play a role in\nmaintaining 
 the expansive interdigital membrane of the bat wing while the 5'\nHoxd gen
 es may be involved in the specifying the skeletal length of both the\nbat 
 fore and hindlimb.
LOCATION:Part II Lecture Theatre\, Department of Zoology
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