TGF-beta/Smad2/3 signaling directly regulates several miRNAs in mouse ES Cells and early embryos. Mus musculus

Purpose: We aimed to identify miRNAs which are induced by the Activin/Nodal effectors, P-Smad2/3, in order to further our understanding of how P-Smad2/3 controls downstream gene expression in mouse ES cells to regulate crucial biological processes. Methods: We used a previously developed Tetracycline-On (Tet-On) system (TAG1) to manipulate the levels of P-Smad2/3 in mouse ES cells and performed an Illumina deep-sequencing screen to identify miRNAs which followed the P-Smad2/3 pathway. Results: We filtered the deep-seq data to identify a list of 28 miRNAs which showed a >1.25 fold increase in response to P-Smad2/3 induction and a >1.25 fold decrease in response to P-Smad2/3 repression. Conclusions: Our study represents a comprehensive global profiling of miRNA expression in response to changes in P-Smad2/3 levels in mouse ES cells. Overall design: miRNA profiles of TAG1 cells which were untreated (control), SB-431541 treated (P-Smad2/3 repressed), or Dox treated (P-Smad2/3 induced), were generated using Illumina GAII.