發育的過程中不同的基因表現導致細胞分化成不同功能的組織或器官，其中轉錄調控扮演著一個重要的角色。zfh1基因的蛋白質產物是一個轉錄抑制子，zfh1基因突變的果蠅胚胎中許多由中胚層發育而來的組織都產生缺陷，但目前還不清楚zfh1所調控的下游基因有哪些。為了找出zfh1的下游基因，實驗室先前用DNA 微陣列的方法測量了zfh1突變時胚胎的基因表現變化。我挑選了14個胚胎時期表現在中胚層的基因出來以計量即時聚合酶鏈鎖反應 (qPCR) 的方式驗證DNA微陣列的實驗結果。qPCR實驗結果顯示在DNA微陣列實驗中表現量上升的5個基因當中有3個基因表現量上升；在DNA微陣列實驗中表現量不變的3個基因當中有2個基因表現量不變；而在DNA微陣列實驗中表現量下降的6個基因當中僅有2個基因表現量減少。另外利用實驗室先前用染色質免疫沉澱定序 (ChIP-seq) 找到Zfh1在基因體中的結合位點，我參考 Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project (BDGP) 基因表現資料庫挑選表現在中胚層並且Zfh1會結合在附近的9個基因並用原位雜合的方式觀察其內源性表現，結果發現這9個基因都會表現在中胚層衍生的組織，例如:肌肉系統、脂肪體等等。合併qPCR與原位雜合結果顯示，與zfh1表現在相同中胚層組織且在zfh1突變胚胎中基因表現量產生變化的基因即可能是Zfh1的下游基因但無法得知是Zfh1是直接調控或間接調控這些基因。

Differential gene expression drives the differentiation of cells during development, and transcriptional regulation plays an important role. Zfh1, a transcriptional repressor, displays mutant phenotypes in a variety of mesoderm-derived tissues. However, what genes are regulated by Zfh1 is still not clear. In order to identify downstream target genes of Zfh1, our lab previously profiled changes of gene expression levels in zfh12 mutant embryos by microarray experiments. I selected 14 genes with characterized expression in mesoderm-derived tissues and used quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) to verify expression levels of these genes in zfh12 mutants. I found that 3 out of the 5 genes that have been shown to be upregulated in zfh12 expression profile also show increased expression levels in qPCR experiments, and 2 of the 3 genes with constant expression in microarray experiments are consistent with the results of qPCR, and 2 of the 6 genes that are downregulated in zfh12 expression profile have decreased expression in qPCR. In addition, our lab used the chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing (ChIP-seq) to find the binding region of Zfh1 in the genome. I referred to the BDGP gene expression database select 9 genes which are expressed in the mesoderm and bound by Zfh1, and used in situ hybridization to observe their endogenous expression. The results show that these 9 genes all expressed in mesoderm-derived tissues such as muscles and fat body. The results from qPCR combined with in situ hybridization showed that genes showing the same expression pattern with zfh1 and gene expression levels changed in zfh1 mutant embryos might be the downstream gene of Zfh1. But it is not known that these genes are directly or indirectly regulated by Zfh1.

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