OCT4 Knockdown in human embryonic stem cells

We studied the genomic locations of three key regulatory proteins (OCT4, NANOG and CTCF) in human and mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells [see Series GSE20650]. To identify the conserved and unique human OCT4 targets, we performed an OCT4 RNAi knock-down experiment. We find that species-specific transposable elements have profoundly altered the transcriptional circuitry of pluripotent stem cells. To identify the mRNA targets of OCT4: 12 samples were collected in total. Each sample is done in triplicate and samples were collected at 2 different time point, 2 days and 3 days after transfection. Luciferase knockdown serves as negative control and OCT4 knockdown is the experimental sample.