Determination of the Sp5 regulated transcriptome in differentiating ES cells. Mus musculus

Sp5 is a target and critical transducer of the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway and is essential for mesoderm differentiation in vertebrate embryos. We established a doxycycline inducible ES cell line to over-express Flag epitope-tagged Sp5 protein in differentiating ES cells which have the capacity to form mesoderm cells in vitro. The goal of this study was to identify the genes/gene networks regulated by Sp5 to understand how it regulates mesoderm differentiation by identifying important target genes which may mediate its activity. Overall design: Total RNA was extracted from ES cells after 3 days of differentiating following F-Sp5 over-expression from day 2 to 3. We compared the transcriptome of differentially expressed genes between untreated (minus) and doxycycline treated (plus) ES cells to identify Sp5 regulated genes.