A comprehensive spatial-temporal transcriptomic analysis of differentiating nascent mouse lens epithelial and fiber cells

The lens is comprised of the anterior lens epithelium and posterior lens fibers, which form the bulk of the lens. The RNAseq data enables identification of lens epithelium and fiber differentially expressed genes and temporally differentially expressed genes which were also validated by qRTPCR. The present RNA-seq data serves as a comprehensive reference resource for deciphering molecular principles of normal mammalian lens differentiation, mapping a full spectrum of signaling pathways and DNA-binding transcription factors operating in both lens compartments, and predicting novel pathways required to establish lens transparency. The lens epithelium and fiber were collected from E14.5, E16.5, E18.5 CD1 mouse embryos and P0.5 mice. Three biological replicates were prepared. The RNA were used for total RNAseq library construction and sent for 100bp paired end sequencing on illumina Hiseq 2500. The genes detected by RNAseq were then validated by qRTPCR.