Cecr2 promotes somatic cell reprogramming as a downstream target of SALL4 [RNA-seq]

Sall4 is among one of the most important reprogramming factors. However, the underline molecular mechanisms for such importance remains unclear. In this report, we first described the gene expression and chromatin accessibility dynamics in OKS-Sall4 induced somatic cell reprogramming, and screened a group of downstream targets of Sall4, among which, cecr2, regulated by Sall4 directly, can significantly promote OKS induced reprogramming. Moreover, Cecr2 and Sall4 shared several downstream targets, such as Esrrb, Nanog, T etc., at transcription level when overexpress in the context of OKS induced reprogramming. We further showed that the DTT domain of cecr2 was responding to the reprogramming activity. Our findings provide a new important reprogramming factors and suggesting the cecr2-associted protein network may contributes to overcoming the epigenetic barriers in reprogramming. Overall design: In total, we collected 10 cell samples in reprogramming D0, D1, D3,D5 and D7 from 2 independent expriments. mRNA Library sequencing done with NextSeq500.