Direct induction of retinal ganglion cell-like neurons

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the projection neurons in the retina that connect the visual sensing tissue to the brain. We found that Ascl1/Brn3b/Isl1 transcription factor combination can quickly and efficiently reprogramming mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) into retinal ganglion cell-like neurons (iRGCs). Using RNA-seq, we analyzed the transcriptomes of MEFs infected with Ascl1/Brn3b/Isl1-overexpressing viruses on day 2 or day 7 of reprogramming, or the final iRGCs on day 13 of reprogramming. MEFs infected with Ascl1/Brn3b/Isl1-overexpressing lentiviruses were FACS sorted based on GFP expression (linked to the end of Ascl1/Brn3b/Isl1 through 2A peptides), and processed for RNA-seq library construction and sequencing.