Exon Level Expression Profiling: a Novel Unbiased Transcriptome

Transcriptome analysis of partially fragmented RNA from EndoC BH1 human beta cells sorted by FACs Global gene expression profiling has shown great promise in identifying altered cell differentiation status from cultured cells. However, FACs sorting cells using internal markers causes the RNA to be partially fragmented. Clariom D pico arrays are able to utilise partially fragmented RNA to provide exon level definition to determine changes in both total gene expression and splicing. A somatostatin-positive cell population was induced in stressed clonal human EndoC Bh1 beta cells and was isolated using FACs. A transcriptomic characterisation of somatostatin positive cells was then carried out. Potential candidate effector genes were assessed by targetted gene knockdown.