Biological insights from exome sequences of human embryonic stem cell lines. Homo sapiens

Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are a powerful tool for the study of human development and can form the basis of cellular disease models or therapies. However, the genetic make-up and stability of hESCs has not been systematically studied at a genome-wide level with single nucleotide resolution. We therefore sequenced the whole exomes of widely available hESCs. The data generated has provided new insights about the nature of acquired variation and the genomic integrity of the cell lines. We anticipate that this online resource will enable investigators to access raw sequencing data in order to interrogate cell lines for different disease and trait-associated genetic variants.