ZNF804A transcriptome networks in differentiating human neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells

The goal of this project is to study transcriptome change by knocking down ZNF804A, a schizophrenia and bipolar disorder candidate gene, in early neurons derived from iPSCs. Neural progenitor cells (NPCs) were developed from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and transduced by two independent shRNA vectors targeting ZNF804A, a schizophrenia and bipolar disorder candidate gene. After recovery and selection in puromycin, neuronal differentiation was induced. After 14 days, RNA was recovered and analyzed by RNA-seq. The expression profiles were compared with NPCs that were transduced with scrambled control vectors. This corresponds to controls 1-3 and KD 1-3, which was carried out on a male iPSC line. Scramble 1 and 2 and KD1 and 2 are technical replicates. Scrambled 3 and KD 3 were carried out on an independent NPC culture. For control 4 and KD4, neuronal differentiation was induced, and on day 10 the cells were transduced with the same ZNF804A KD and scrambled control vectors used for scrambled control 3 and KD3. In addition, this last set was carried out on a female iPSC line