RNA Sequencing to Identify Regulators of Axon Regeneration in Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells

Purpose: The goals of this study are to identify the transcriptional profile of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) with the capacity to regenerate an axon, and contrast this profile with the profile of RGCs that cannot regenerate an axon. Methods: See sample pages for protocols for tissue preparation, RNA extraction and purification, library construction and data processing. Results: RNA from the 12 samples was sequenced to an average depth of 42 million reads. Genes were considered expressed if a gene had an expression of 1 count per million in 3 of the 12 samples. There were 13,406 genes that met this criterion. Conclusions: Our study represents the first analysis by NGS of highly-purified RGCs in the context of axonal injury RGC mRNA profiles of melanopsin RGCs and ON-OFF Direction Selective Ganglion Cells (ooDSGCs) were generated by deep sequencing in triplicate, using Illumina HiSeq 2500.