Transcription-dependent control of stem cell self-renewal and differentiation by the splicing factor U2AF1

Purpose: Here we describe the modulation of a gene expression program involved in cell fate. Methods: We depleted U2AF1 in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to the level found in differentiated cells using an inducible shRNA system, followed by high-throughput RNAseq, revealing a gene expression program involved in cell fate determination. Results: Approximately 85% of the total raw reads were mapped to the human genome sequence (GRCh37), giving an average of 200 million human reads per sample for total RNA and 15 million human reads per sample for small RNA libraries. Conclusions: Our results show that transcriptional control of gene expression in hiPSCs can be set by the CSF U2AF1, establishing a direct link between transcription and AS during cell fate determination. Overall design: hiPSCs were differentiated into the three germ layers following the described protocol in the study (Gifford et al., 2013).