Fig. 7

Schematic summary of MAPK/ERK functions in renal progenitor populations. With the help of RNA-Seq and tissue-specific Mek1/2 knockout, kidneys representing MAPK/ERK-deficient ureteric bud (UB) epithelium (orange) and nephron progenitor cells (purple), 1004 and 5053 differentially expressed genes were identified in MM and UB, respectively. Major changes in MM have a profound association with mitochondrial and energy metabolism. In the UB, the majority of changes correlate with cell adhesion and cell mobility functions which our further experimentation demonstrates to result in failure to maintain tip identity, resulting in the premature differentiation of the collecting duct epithelium (not shown here). Most of the changes in the 362 shared genes are related to branching, cell division, and cell cycle