Comparative analysis of RNA-seq data from human ALT+ cell lines treated with NR2F2 siRNA

The Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) facilitates telomere lengthening by a DNA strand invasion and copying mechanism. The nuclear receptor NR2F2 can bind to (TCAGGG)n variant repeats within telomeres and it has been proposed that this facilitates telomere interactions in ALT+ cells. However, the role NR2F2 in regulation the gene expression in ALT+ cell lines is unclear. Here, using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), we characterised the changes in expression profile of three ALT+ cell lines (W-V, WI38VA13/2RA, U2OS) upon transient siRNA mediated downregulation of NR2F2 compared to cells treated with a control siRNA . Among 86 ALT-associated genes, only MND1 showed consistent down-regulation across the three NR2F2-depleted ALT+ cell lines. Altogether our data indicate that NR2F2 it does not play a direct role in the ALT mechanism.