Expression data from E12.5 and E14.5 mouse embryonic gonad of wild type (WT) and Wnt-4 knock-out (KO) mice. [MG_U74Av2]

Wnt-4 signaling is critical for embryonic female sexual development. When Wnt-4 gene is deleted during embryonic development, the knock-out females present a partial sex reversal. We used microarrays to detail the global programme of gene expression underlying sexual development and identified distinct classes of up and down-regulated genes during this process. Mouse embryonic gonad from wild type and Wnt-4 knock-out mice (male and female) were selected at two stages of sex determination for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. We sought to obtain homogeneous populations of embryonic gonad at each developmental stage in order to increase the temporal resolution of expression profiles. To that end, we hand-selected embryos according to morphological criteria at two time-points: E 12.5 and E14.5.