ang is a novel gene expressed in early neuroectoderm, but its null mutant exhibits no obvious phenotype

To find genes that play roles in initial regionalization of anterior neuroectoderm, 15 novel genes were isolated that are expressed in anterior neuroectoderm at E8.0-E8.5. Moreover, to assess their functions by generation of mutant mice a conventional targeting strategy was designed, exploiting the availability of accurate long amplification PCR and BAC library that is coupled with genome information, in C57BL/6 strain. The ang is one of such genes; it has no known functional domains or no cognates, but is conserved not only in vertebrates, but also in Drosophila. Its expression was initially found throughout neuroectoderm at E7.5; subsequently the expression became high in rostral brain and caudal neuropore regions and low in hindbrain and spinal cord regions. At E12.5 the expression was found in undifferentiated neuroepithelium in ventricular zone, dorsal root ganglia and several non-neural tissues. However, ang null mutant was live-born without any apparent defects. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.