Identification of rat enamel organ RNA transcripts using differential-display

Enamel formation is a complex process which involves the expression of a nu mber of genes, the most obvious being those related to the mineralized extr acellular matrix. In this study the differential-display technique, first d escribed by Liang and Pardee,([1]) has been used to identify genes specific ally expressed in enamel organ cells, By comparing results obtained from RN A derived from rat enamel organ with RNA derived from other cellular source s, a number of differentially expressed transcripts have been identified. T he nucleotide sequences of two of these have been analyzed and shown to hav e no homology with any previously published sequences. Further analysis wil l provide information on the type of protein that they may encode, their ti ssue distribution and their potential role in enamel formation.