MKL1/2 dependent target genes

Megakaryoblastic Leukemia 1 and 2 (MKL1 and 2) are coactivators of the transcription factor Serum Response Factor (SRF). We recently showed that depletion of MKL1 and 2 abolished HCC xenograft growth, associated with oncogene-induced senescence. To identify suitable MKL target genes mediating these effects, we performed microarray analyses using HuH7 hepatocellular carcinoma cells stably expressing shRNA against MKL1/2 (HuH7 MKL1/2 KD). We therefore used a Affymetrix oligonucleotide array and filtered for genes whose expression in HuH7 MKL1/2 KD cells was reduced by a factor of at least 2.5 as compared to control HuH7 cells. We analyzed duplicates of HuH7 cells stably expressing a control shRNA and duplicates of HuH7 cells stably expressing MKL1/2 shRNA, overall we used 4 samples.