Heterokaryon RNA Sequencing

We report the application of bi-species RNAseq for investigating mechanisms of reprogramming towards pluripotency using heterokaryons (mouse embryonic stem cell X human fibroblast cell fusions). The use of mixed species allows one to monitor reprogramming of the human somatic nuclei independently of contributions from the mouse nuclei using nucleotide differences. We used RNAseq to monitor heterokaryon reprogramming over a 3-day timecourse, generating transcriptome-wide data for cell fusion based reprogramming of human fibroblasts towards pluripotency. Examination of cellular reprogramming over a heterokaryon timecourse (mouse embryonic stem cells X human fibroblasts)