Figure 4.

Endothelial-specific deletion of Traf7 confers embryonic lethality and altered gene expression associates with endothelium-specific TRAF7 deficiency

(A) Genotyping analysis of progeny following mating Traf7^fl/fl mice with Traf7^fl/+;Tie2-Cre⁺ mice. Traf7^fl/fl;Tie2-Cre⁺ (Traf7^ECko) pups were never born, but genotyping of E9.5 and E10.5 embryos demonstrated the expected Mendelian distribution. (dpc): days postcoitum.

(B) Morphological analysis of littermate control (Traf7^fl/fl) and Traf7^ECko embryos at E9.5 and E10.5 in lateral views. White scale bars are 0.5 mm.

(C) Visual analysis of embryonic vascular structures. Littermate control (Traf7^EChet) and Traf7^ECko embryos at E9.5 (top panels) and E10.5 (middle panels) were fixed and immuno-stained with an anti-PECAM-1 mAb. Heart regions from E10.5 (middle panels) are shown at higher magnification in the bottom panels. Black scale bars are 0.5 mm.

(D) Bubble plot of KEGG enrichment analysis of signaling pathways downregulated in Traf7^ECko versus Traf7^EChet (control) embryos at E9.5. Each bubble represents a KEGG pathway. Gene ratio (x axis) is the proportion of the total genes in a given pathway that is upregulated in the indicated group.

(E) Volcano plot of RNA-seq analysis visualizing significant DEGs in Traf7^ECko versus Traf7^EChet (control) embryos at E9.5. Magnitude of change (x-axis) vs. statistically significant p values (y axis). Points with p value less than 0.05 are shown in blue.