COMPARATIVE EXPRESSED-SEQUENCE-TAG ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENTIAL GENE-EXPRESSION PROFILES IN PC-12 CELLS BEFORE AND AFTER NERVE GROWTH-FACTOR TREATMENT

Nerve growth factor-induced differentiation of adrenal chromaffin PC-1 2 cells to a neuronal phenotype involves alterations in gene expressio n and represents a model system to study neuronal differentiation. We have used the expressed-sequence-tag approach to identify approximate to 600 differentially expressed mRNAs in untreated and nerve growth fa ctor-treated PC-12 cells that encode proteins with diverse structural and biochemical functions. Many of these mRNAs encode proteins belongi ng to cellular pathways not previously known to be regulated by nerve growth factor. Comparative expressed-sequence-tag analysis provides a basis for surveying global changes in gene-expression patterns in resp onse to biological signals at an unprecedented scale, is a powerful to ol for identifying potential interactions between different cellular p athways, and allows the gene expression profiles of individual genes b elonging to a particular pathway to be followed.