Genome-wide microRNA transcriptome profiles in pluripotent mouse Embryonic Stem Cells and during Retinoic Acid-induced differentiation

We report the genome-wide microRNA expression levels in pluripotent mESC and as mESC differentiate towards a neuronal lineage in response to high levels of Retinoic Acid treatment in vitro. microRNA-seq was performed to identify all microRNAs expressed in both ESCs and neuronal cells. In total, 534 expressed microRNAs we identified, of which 18 were up-regulated and 6 were down-regulated (fold change (FC) > -/+2.0 and p-value < 0.05) during Retinoic Acid-induced neuronal differentiation. The top up-regulated microRNAs identified were Mir10a, Mir615, Mir217 and Mir219a-2. The top down-regulated microRNAs identifed were Mir211, Mir292, Mir302a and Mir302c. Overall design: Examination, identification and comparision of microRNA expression profliles in two cellular states.