RNA-seq of inner ear RNA from mice carrying a mutation in Zfp719 and wildtype controls at 3 different ages

The function of zinc finger protein 719 (Zfp719) remains largely unknown. The most closely related human gene ZNF175 encodes protein OTK18 which has 44% amino acid identity with mouse Zfp719, and is thought to be a transcriptional suppressor. Zfp719-deficient mice showed highly elevated auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds at 14 weeks in a high-throughput targeted mutagenesis programme (the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute's Mouse Genetics Project). In order to understand the regulatory changes caused by the reduction in Zfp719, we carried out RNA-seq on RNA extracted from the inner ears of wildtypes and sex-matched homozygotes at three different ages; four days, two weeks and three weeks old, to look at expression before maturation of the auditory system, and before and after the onset of hearing loss. Strand-specific libraries were prepared using TruSeq stranded mRNA LT kit and sequenced on an Illumina NextSeq 500 machine as paired-end 150bp reads.