Differential Gene Expression in MDA-MB231 from transduction of cells with shRNA targeting CDK19 and CDK8

When CDK19 was initially discovered, it was assumed that CDK19 played a redundant role to CDK8 because they share 84% amino acid sequence similarity. However, biological clues such as CDK19s different chromosomal location and its more limited tissue distribution suggested a role distinct from CDK8 To investigate whether CDK19 and CDK8 had distinct biological functions in Triple-Negative breast cancer, we knocked down CDK19 and CDK8 in MDA-MB231 and examined differences in the resulting gene expression. MDA-MB231 cells were infected with shRNA targeting CDK19, shRNA targeting CDK8, 'empty vector' control shRNA and grown in cell culture conditions for 96 hours. Infected cells were sorted by FACS (RFP+) and used for microarray studies.