Veiled chameleon transcriptome from gastrulation to early organogenesis

Veiled chameleon embryos were collected between gastrulation and early organogenesis stages to generate the long-read transcriptome. These stages of development encompass numerous developmental processes - gastrulation, neurulation, organogenesis, as well as establishing left-right patterning. This study focused on left-right pattering processes in veiled chameleon. The transcriptome revealed presence of all the major members of the Nodal cascade, excluding Dand5, which appears to be missing from reptilian genomes. Furthermore, two copies of Nodal paralogs were identified in the transcriptome - Nodal1 and Nodal2, unlike previous reports in avians, turtles and geckos, which only retained Noda2 gene. In summary, veiled chameleon is an excellent research organism for the study of early amniote development and evolution, and this transcriptome provides an opportunity for close examination of some of the earlies developmental processes.