Mus musculus strain:OT1 TCR transgenic C57BL/6 Transcriptome or Gene expression. Mus musculus strain:OT1 TCR transgenic C57BL/6

Tumor-reactive naïve T cells have been shown to better mediate tumor regressions than those in later states such as central memory and effector memory cells. Although transcriptional changes in protein coding genes during T cell maturation have been well characterized, little is known about the role of alternatively spliced isoforms and noncoding RNAs in driving these events. To assess the relevance of these transcripts, we performed RNA-Seq transcriptome profiling of rRNA-depleted samples from naïve, central memory and effector memory CD8+ (cytotoxic) T cells. To profile T cell differentiation, we sequenced 416 M Illumina 100-bp paired-end reads from the three T cell subsets. Naïve and effector memory T cells had the highest number of differentially expressed transcripts, while effector and central memory cells had the fewest number of such transcripts, which is consistent with dramatic phenotypic differences among these subsets.