Determination of a comprehensive alternative splicing regulatory network and the combinatorial regulation by key factors during Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition [EMT.time course]

The epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an essential biological process during embryonic development and has also been implicated in cancer metastasis. Previous studies have characterized transcriptional regulation and key transcription factors that impact EMT. However, the role of alternative splicing (AS) regulation in EMT has only recently emerged and remains relatively uncharacterized. Here we used a robust in vitro EMT model to dynamically and comprehensively characterize splicing switches during EMT in a temporal manner. We generated a H358 clone stably expressing a doxycycline (Dox)-inducible cDNA encoding a Zeb1-mCherry fusion protein. Over a 7-day time course following Dox treatment, cells have undergone EMT. We harvested total RNA and protein at each day of the EMT time course and a no Dox-treated control in biological triplicates. We made cDNA libraries for each replicate and subjected them to RNA-seq.