Does inhibition of Delta-like 4 mediated signaling induce abortion in mice due to deregulation of decidual angiogenesis?
The observed promiscuous expression of Dll4 and the increase in cell proliferation, apoptosis and vascularization are events compatible with loss of the tip/stalk phenotype. Excessive (although very likely defective) decidual angiogenesis due to such vascular alterations is the most likely cause of subsequent interruption of embryo development and related pregnancy in Dll4 treated mice.
Alignment-free distances may be used effectively for reads comparison, and may provide a significant speed-up in several processes based on NGS sequencing (e.g., DNA assembly, reads classification).