Early commitment genes drive fast, irreversible commitment to human embryonic stem cell differentiation (RNA-seq data set 2)

The goal of this study was to characterise the earliest transcriptional changes that occur in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) immediately after exposure to various pro-differentiation stimuli. RNA-Seq of mRNA was performed on cultured hESCs treated with either BMP4 or growth factor cocktails designed to direct differentiation to a particular germ lineage (endoderm, ectoderm, trophectoderm) for 0, 20, 40, or 60 minutes. Experiments were performed in triplicate.