The role of Bmp and Fgf signalling in early embryonic head development

In early embryonic development, signalling molecules like Bmp or Fgf are responsible for pattern formation and cell fate decisions. To investigate the role of Bmp and Fgf signalling in the development of head structures, we performed a transcriptomic analysis of chicken embryos. We took chicken embryos at HH7/8 in roller culture. The embryos were exposed to the solvent DMSO (1:1000) as negative control, to 1 micromolar of the ALK2/3 inhibitor LDN193189, or to 1 micromolar of the FGFR inhibitor PD173074 for 6 hours. Total RNA was isolated from the heads (rostral to the first somite) of 10-15 embryos for each biological replicate, and sequenced by Illumina sequencing.