Molecular fingerprint of the podocyte reveals novel gene regulatory networks

The thorough characterization of the transcriptome of endogenous podocytes has been hampered by low yields of cell isolation procedures. Here we introduce a double fluorescent reporter mouse model combined with an optimized bead perfusion protocol and efficient single cell dissociation yielding more than 500,000 podocytes per mouse allowing for global, unbiased downstream applications. Combining mRNA transcriptional profiling revealed programs of highly specific gene regulation tightly controlling cytoskeleton, cell differentiation, endosomal transport and peroxisome function in podocytes. Strikingly, the analyses further predict that these podocyte-specific gene regulatory networks are accompanied by alternative splicing of respective genes. In summary, the presented ‘omics’ approach will facilitate the discovery and integration of novel gene, protein and organelle regulatory networks that deepen our systematic understanding of podocyte biology. To compare gene expression of glomerulus podocytes versus non-podocytes 5 replicates of 4 pooled mice were used. Data were normalized by robust multi-chip analysis. Exon expression values were summarised to the core meta probesets, as defined by Affymetrix, using the oligo library from R.