Transcription profiling of mouse WT and Nxf2 KO post-natal day 21 testes

In euakryotes, mRNAs must be exported from the nucleus to the cytsoplasm. NXF2 is highly expressed in the mouse male germ cells. We are interested in its function in spermatogenesis, espically in the nuclear RNA export in the testis. To this end, we made Nxf2 mutant mice by gene targeting. In an attempt to identify the mRNA substrates of NXF2, we perform the microarray experiments on testes. We used microarrays to check the expression profiles of the Nxf2 WT and KO 21d testes on C57BL/6 background. Experiment Overall Design: To examine the expression difference between WT and Nxf2 KO testes, we collected testes from juvenile mice of three ages ( 21d, 26d, 28d). Testis weight was similar between WT and KO mice at post-natal day 21. Three pairs of WT and KO 21d testes were chosen for microarray analysis.在真核生物中，信使RNA（mRNA）需从细胞核转运至细胞质。NXF2在小鼠雄性生殖细胞中呈高表达。我们对其在精子发生过程中的功能，尤其是睾丸内的核RNA输出过程中的功能颇感兴趣。为此，我们通过基因靶向技术构建了Nxf2基因敲除小鼠。为鉴定NXF2的mRNA底物，我们针对睾丸开展了微阵列（microarray）实验。我们使用微阵列芯片检测了C57BL/6遗传背景下21日龄Nxf2野生型（WT）与敲除型（KO）小鼠睾丸的基因表达谱。 实验整体设计：为探究野生型与Nxf2敲除型小鼠睾丸的基因表达差异，我们收集了三个日龄阶段（出生后21日、26日、28日）的幼年小鼠睾丸。在出生后第21日，野生型与敲除型小鼠的睾丸重量无显著差异。我们选取了三对21日龄的野生型与敲除型小鼠睾丸用于本次微阵列分析。