GSE53260
mRNA-Seq and microRNA-Seq whole-transcriptome analysis of rhesus monkey ESC neural differentiation revealed the potential rosette neural stem cell regulators
Rosette neural stem cells (R-NSCs) represent early stage of neural development and possess full neural differentiation and regionalization capacities. R-NSCs are considered as stem cells of neural lineage and have important implications in study of neurogenesis and cell replacement therapy. However, the molecules regulating their functional properties remain largely unknown. Rhesus monkey is ideal model to study human neural degenerative diseases and plays intermediate translational roles as therapeutic strategies evolve from rodent systems to human clinical applications. In this study, we derived R-NSCs from rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells (rESCs) and systematically investigated the unique expressions of mRNAs, microRNAs, and signaling pathways by genome-wide comparison of the mRNA and microRNA profilings of ESCs, R-NSCs at early (R-NSCP1) and late passages (R-NSCP6) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs). Apart from the R-NSCP1 specific protein-coding genes and microRNAs, we identified several pathways including Hedgehog and Wnt highly activated in R-NSCP1. The possible regulatory interactions among the microRNAs, protein-coding genes and signaling pathways were proposed. Besides, many genes with alternative splicing switch were identified at R-NSCP1. These data provided valuable resource to understand the regulation of early neurogenesis and to better manipulate the R-NSCs for cell replacement therapy. Overall design: mRNA and miRNA profiles for four stages in rhesus embryonic stem cell neural differentiation, eight samples in all