Global Transcriptome Analyses of Mammalian Terminal Erythroid Differentiation

Purpose:The purpose of this study is to create unbiased, stage-specific transcriptomes by RNA-seq analyses of pure populations of both murine and human erythroblasts at distinct developmental stages. Methods: Recently developed FACS-based methods (Chen et al, PNAS, Liu et al, Blood, Hu et al Blood) were employed to purify morphologically and functionally discrete populations of cells, each representing specific stages of terminal erythroid differentiation. RNA was prepared from these cells and subjected to RNA-seq analyses. Results: There were vast temporal changes in gene expression across the differentiation stages, with each stage exhibiting unique transcriptomes.Clustering and network analyses revealed that differing stage-specific patterns of expression across differentiation were transcriptionally enriched for genes of differing function. Numerous differences were present between human and murine transcriptomes, with significant variation in the global patterns of gene expression. Conclusions: These data provide a significant resource for studies of normal and perturbed erythropoiesis, allowing a deeper understanding of mechanisms of erythroid development, differentiation, and inherited and acquired disease. Overall design: Both murine and human erythroblasts at distinct developmental stage mRNA profiles were generated by deep sequencing, in triplicate, using IlluminaHiSeq 2000.