Gene expression analysis of mouse Kras-mutant lung adenocarcinoma cells and cancer stem cells

Mechanisms underlying cancer stemness in Kras-mutant lung adenocarcinoma (KM-LUAD) are poorly understood. We previously found that mice with knockout of Gprc5a develop LUADs with somatic Kras mutations. We also previously derived Gprc5a-/- KM-LUAD cells (MDA-F471 cells) from a mouse exposed to the tobacco-specific carcinogen NNK. We also derived cancer stem cells (CSCs; grown and cultured as spheres in 3D cultures) from MDA-F471 cells. To better understand the biology of these CSCs, we compared the transcriptomes of MDA-F471 cells and their CSC counterparts by bulk RNA-sequencing. CSCs were grown in spheres using sphere formation assays. Total RNA were isolated form three biological replicates of each of MDA-F471 cells and CSCs and analyzed by bulk RNA-sequencing using the NovaSeq6000 platform from Illumina.