Transcriptional Analysis of Rathke's Pouch Formation during Chick Embryonic Development by RNAseq

The anterior pituitary gland plays an essential role in the regulation of many physiological processes such as growth, reproduction, lactation, stress, and metabolism in vertebrates. Formation of Rathke’s pouch, the precursor of the anterior pituitary gland, is a multi-step process regulated by cell interactions, signaling pathways, and transcription factors, that starts with evagination of the oral ectoderm. Previously, we used laser capture microdissection, RNA amplification, and reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) to characterize mRNA levels for selected genes in the oral ectoderm and adjacent neural ectoderm during Rathke's pouch formation in chicken embryos (embryonic day 2.5 to 7). However, each of the selected genes analyzed had been implicated previously in pituitary development. In the current study, RNAseq was performed on these samples to analyze changes in mRNA levels on a genome-wide scale and identify novel genes associated with Rathke's pouch formation and pituitary development.