Fig. 1

Schematic figure of chicken embryo Müllerian duct tissue sampling and pipeline of the bioinformatical analysis. a Samples were taken on 3 consecutive days, E4.5, E5.5 and E6.5. Posterior mesonephros at day 4.5 was used as control (red square). The 4.5 anterior sample comprised both duct and mesonephric kidney tissue. Pure Müllerian duct tissue was collected only at E5.5 and E6.5. b Pipeline of RNA-seq bioinformatical analysis. For static comparisons, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identifed by comparing each stage to the control tissue (E4.5 posterior mesonephros) (Green arrows). For dynamic comparisons, DEG’s were identified by comparing successive stages of duct development (blue arrows). The datasets were subjected to a number of bioionformatic analyses, including GO terms, PPI, WCGNA and TF developmental clustering. c Principle component analysis (PCA) analysis of all samples using all genes. d Differentially Expressed Genes (DEG’s) across samples. Up-regluated genes shown in red, down-regulated genes shown in blue. An increasing number of duct genes were up-regulated relative to the control (E4.5 posteroir) as duct development proceeded. e Venn diagrams showing shared DEGs based on static comparisons (E4.5 anterior, E5.5 and E6.5 duct comparsed to control tissue, E4.5 posterior mesonehpric kidney.) 906 genes were differentially expressed in all samples relative to the control. f Venn diagrams showing shared DEGs based on dynamic comparisons (comparing successive stages of duct development). One hundred eight genes that showed differential expression across all stages of duct development