Unraveling the role of human TSC-specific TFs [RNA-Seq]

Orchestrated actions of tissue-specific enhancers and transcription factors (TFs) govern the development of the placenta which is an essential organ to support the growth of the fetus during pregnancy. However, human trophoblast stem cells (TSCs)-specific enhancers, TFs, and the mechanisms by which TFs modulate placental development are poorly understood. Here we investigated enhancers, super-enhancers (SE), SE-associated genes in human TSC using RNA-seq and ChIP-seq to interrogate the roles of SE-TFs in human TSCs. Overall design: We investigated the roles of various TSC-specific TFs (FOS, GATA2, MAFK, TEAD4, and TFAP2C) in human trophoblast stem (TS) cells by depleting the TFs using shRNAs. Total RNAs were extracted from the TS cells upon knockdown (KD) of the TFs, and we performed RNA-seq and investigate global gene expression changes upon KD of the TFs.