METTL14 regulates chondrogenesis through the GDF5–RUNX–extracellular matrix gene axis during limb development [RNA-seq]

METTL14 forms a protein complex that induces m6A methylation on RNA but its roles in mouse limb development remains elusive. We knocked out Mettl14 in a limb bud-specific manner with the Prx1 promoter-driven Cre. The resulting Prx1-cre;Mettl14 flox/flox (conditional KO or cKO) mice showed shorter limbs with disrupted bone and cartilage development compared with the heterozygous Prx1-cre;Mettl14 wild type/flox (cHet) control mice. To understand the molecular basis for the abnormalities, we analyzed polysome RNA prepared from day 12.5 (E12.5) embryonic limb buds with RNA-seq.