RNA-Seq analysis of mouse small intestine enteroendocrine cells

We generated knock-in mice expressing GFP under the control of the endogenous GIP (Glucose-dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide) promoter that enable the isolation of a purified population of small intestine K cells. Using RNA-Seq, we comprehensively characterized the transcriptomes of GIP-GFP cells as well as the entire enteroendocrine lineage derived from Neurogenin3 (Ngn3)-expressing progenitors. We interrogated the whole transcriptome of FACS-isolated small intestine GIPGFP cells using high-throughput mRNA sequencing. We also obtained the global gene expression patterns of the entire enteroendocrine cell lineage as well as the non-enteroendocrine cell population, comprising enterocytes, goblet cells and Paneth cells. To achieve this, small intestine epithelial cells from male mice resulting from the breeding of Neurogenin3 (Ngn3)-Cre mice with ROSA26-LoxP-STOP-LoxP-tomato indicator mice were isolated based on Tomato fluorescence and negative staining for CD45. Due to the small cell numbers, we constructed each of the three RNA-Seq libraries (GIPGFP, Ngn3TOMATO, and Ngn3-) using a pool of equal amounts of individual RNA samples without RNA amplification.