Patterns of gene expression associated with Pten deficiency in the developing inner ear

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 3;9(6):e97544. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097544. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

In inner ear development, phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is necessary for neuronal maintenance, such as neuronal survival and accurate nerve innervations of hair cells. We previously reported that Pten conditional knockout (cKO) mice exhibited disorganized fasciculus with neuronal apoptosis in spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs). To better understand the genes and signaling networks related to auditory neuron maintenance, we compared the profiles of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) using microarray analysis of the inner ear in E14.5 Pten cKO and wild-type mice. We identified 46 statistically significant transcripts using significance analysis of microarrays, with the false-discovery rate set at 0%. Among the DEGs, expression levels of candidate genes and expression domains were validated by quantitative real-time RT-PCR and in situ hybridization, respectively. Ingenuity pathway analysis using DEGs identified significant signaling networks associated with apoptosis, cellular movement, and axon guidance (i.e., secreted phosphoprotein 1 (Spp1)-mediated cellular movement and regulator of G-protein signaling 4 (Rgs4)-mediated axon guidance). This result was consistent with the phenotypic defects of SGNs in Pten cKO mice (e.g., neuronal apoptosis, abnormal migration, and irregular nerve fiber patterns of SGNs). From this study, we suggest two key regulatory signaling networks mediated by Spp1 and Rgs4, which may play potential roles in neuronal differentiation of developing auditory neurons.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Ear, Inner / embryology*
  • Ear, Inner / metabolism*
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental*
  • Gene Regulatory Networks
  • Mice, Knockout
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Osteopontin / genetics
  • Osteopontin / metabolism
  • PTEN Phosphohydrolase / deficiency
  • PTEN Phosphohydrolase / genetics*
  • PTEN Phosphohydrolase / metabolism
  • RGS Proteins / genetics
  • RGS Proteins / metabolism
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

  • RGS Proteins
  • Spp1 protein, mouse
  • Osteopontin
  • RGS4 protein
  • PTEN Phosphohydrolase
  • Pten protein, mouse

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Korea National Institute of Health intramural research grant 4800-4845-302-210 (no. 2012-N61001-00) and 4861-307-210-13. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.