Ectopic expression of lunatic Fringe leads to downregulation of Serrate-1 in the developing chick neural tube; analysis using in ovo electroporation transfection technique.

Lunatic Fringe (l-Fng) is one of the vertebrate homologues of Drosophila Fringe, which interacts with the Notch signal pathway and regulates activation of the Notch ligands, Delta and Serrate. To elucidate the roles of l-Fng in vertebrate neurogenesis, we transfected chick l-Fng (C-l-Fng) to chick neural tube using the in ovo electroporation technique and examined the subsequent changes in expression of Notch-related genes. We observed downregulation of C-Serrate-1 by ectopic C-l-Fng expression which implied that C-l-Fng acts on the vertebrate Notch pathway to regulate the expression of its ligand.