Profiling of the reprogramome and quantification of fibroblast reprogramming to pluripotency

Recognized as being intensive and extensive, the degree of pluripotency reprogramming, however, has not been quantitatively determined before. Here we report a novel concept, reprogramome. Fine mapping of reprogramome indicates that the amount of reprogramming genes is equivalent to 57% of the fibroblast transcriptome, with a large erasome and activatome. We further developed a simple mathematical model to quantitate reprogramming. The total reprogramming is 26,032 LFC units (log2-transformed fold changes). Such quantification indicates that reprogramming in WNT pathways represents 2% of the total reprogramming; and reprogramming in genes involved in cellular morphogenesis represents 7.7% of the total reprogramming. In summary, we have developed a novel concept, reprogramome, for fine profiling of the reprogramming, as well as a mathematical model for accurate quantification of the reprogramming. Overall design: Human embryonic stem cell (n=3) expression were compared to human fibroblasts (n=4).