RNA-seq analysis in Cornea epithelial cells (CECs), skin epithelial cells (SECs), LSCs after knocking down PAX6 (3-D shPAX6 LSCs) and SESCs transduced with PAX6(3-D PAX6+ SESCs) upon 3-D differentiation

Purpose: We find that Wnt7a-PAX6 axis determine corneal epithelial cell fate. To obtain global evidence for successful cell fate conversion, we performed gene expression profiling by RNA-seq on CECs, SECs, and LSCs after knocking down PAX6 and on SESCs transduced with PAX6 upon 3-D differentiation. Methods: Under 3-D culture condition, limbal stem cell (LSCs) can be differentiated to Cornea epithelial cells (CECs), and skin epithelial stem cells (SESCs) can be differentiated to skin epithelial cells (SECs). Total RNA was isolated from CECs, SECs, and LSCs after knocking down PAX6 (3-D shPAX6 LSCs) and on SESCs transduced with PAX6 (3-D PAX6+ SESCs) upon 3-D differentiation. Libraries were prepared following published standard protocol (Fox-Walsh K et al., 2011, genomics, 266-71). mRNA profiles were generated by deep sequencing, in duplicate, using Illumina HiSeq 2000. Results: Following optimized decoding and mapping workfollow, we mapped about 5 million sequence reads to the human genome and identified more than 23659 transcripts per sample. Conclusions: Hierarchical clustering analysis of differentially expressed gene signatures revealed that the gene expression pattern of SESCs with PAX6 transduction was strikingly similar to that of CECs, whereas the profile of LSCs with PAX6 knockdown was highly related to that in SECs upon differentiation. These data therefore provided global evidence for a decisive role of the WNT7A/PAX6 axis in cell fate conversion from SESCs to CECs. RNA-seq on CECs, SECs, and LSCs after knocking down PAX6 and on SESCs transduced with PAX6 upon 3-D differentiation, using Illumina HiSeq 2000