Yap dependent reprogramming of Lgr5+ stem cells drives intestinal regeneration and cancer

Hippo signalling has been implicated as a key regulator of tissue regeneration. In the intestine, ex vivo organoid cultures model aspects of crypt epithelial regeneration. Therefore in order to uncover the Yap regulated transcriptional programs during crypt regeneration we performed RNA-sequencing of Yap wt and Yap deficient organoids, as well as organoids inducibly expressing Yap. Overall design: Yap loss of function organoids were harvested from Yapfl/fl;VillinCre mice (Yap-/-). In addition, we developed Yap overexpressing organoids by generating a doxycycline-inducible wild-type Yap transgenic line under the control of a Cre driven reverse tetracycline transactivator (rtTA), referred to here as YapTg. Organoids were seeded on day 0 from whole crypts isolated from Yap+/D, YapD/D, YapTg mice and cultured for 24 hours at which time they were harvested for transcriptome analysis by RNAseq.