Next Generation Sequencing Facilitates Quantitative Analysis of Wild Type, DDX5 knockout, RORc knockout, RmrpG262T knockin T helper 17 cell Transcriptomes [RNA-seq]

Purpose: The goals of this study are to compare in vitro polarized T helper 17 cell transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) in different genetic background. Methods: Th17 mRNA profiles of 96hrs in vitro cultured T helper 17 cells from wild-type and mutant mice were generated by deep sequencing, using Illumina RapidRun. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were analyzed at the transcript isoform level with two methods: Burrows–Wheeler Aligner (BWA) and TopHat followed by CuffDiff. qRT–PCR validation was performed using SYBR Green assays. Results: Among the 325 genes that were significantly dysregulated in DDX5-deficient T cells, approximately 40% were previously identified as RORγt targets in Th17 cells. 96 RORγt-dependent Th17 cell genes co-regulated by Rmrp together with DDX5. Conclusions: Our study suggest that the DDX5-Rmrp axis is critical for expression of a critical subset of the RORγt transcriptional targets in Th17 cells. mRNA profiles of 96hr in vitro cultured Th17 from wild type (WT) and mutant mice were generated by deep sequencing using Illumina RapidRun.