Crosstalk between corticosterone and triiodothyronine signaling in Xenopus tropicalis hindlimb buds

Thyroid hormone signaling has a wide range of biological effects involved in the control of homeostasis and development. In amphibian, thyroid hormones control the onset of metamorphosis, which resemble the mammalian perinatal period. Glucocorticoids too are involved in vertebrate development but they also mediate stress response and thus act as a relay that channel environmental inputs and modulate biological processes. Despite being deeply adaptive, glucocorticoids responses may nonetheless promote more detrimental long-term effects because of sub-optimal benefit-cost balances. To date, the extent and the diversity of functional interactions between thyroid hormone and glucocorticoid signaling are supported by very little molecular data. Here, we used transcriptomic analysis to collect the molecular details of the crosstalk between triiodothyronine and corticosterone signaling during limb development, in vivo. We show that the transcriptional responses to the two hormones are highly archetypal and that crosstalk affect expression of a few hundred of genes, with some of them potentially involved in bone development.