klf7 deficiency effect on mouse brain

Klf7 is highly active in postmitotic neuroblasts in the developing nervous system (CNS) in mice. Klf7-null mice exhibit neonatal lethality and impaired axon projections in the olfactory system and visual system.  In addition, klf7 was proposed as a candidate gene for ASD, 4 unrelated individuals with de novo mutations in klf7 accompanied by ASD-related developmental delay/intellectual disability (DD/ID) and neuromuscular and psychiatric complications. Owing to the transcriptional regulation activity and increasingly strong expression of klf7 in the developing central nervous systems, klf7 may be a critical gene in ASD. To investigate whether klf7 participates in ASD pathology by regulating other ASD risk genes, we performed RNA-seq on the whole brains of 1-month-old WT and klf7^+/- mice.