Transcription Factors Expressed in Mouse Cochlear Inner and Outer Hair Cells.

Yi Li,David Z Z He,Huizhan Liu,Lidong Zhao,Weiping J Zhang,Shusheng Gong,Kirk W Beisel,Cody L Barta,Paul D Judge,Bruce B Riley

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0151291

Abstract

Regulation of gene expression is essential to determining the functional complexity and morphological diversity seen among different cells. Transcriptional regulation is a crucial step in gene expression regulation because the genetic information is directly read from DNA by sequence-specific transcription factors (TFs). Although several mouse TF databases created from genome sequences and transcriptomes are available, a cell type-specific TF database from any normal cell populations is still lacking. We identify cell type-specific TF genes expressed in cochlear inner hair cells (IHCs) and outer hair cells (OHCs) using hair cell-specific transcriptomes from adult mice. IHCs and OHCs are the two types of sensory receptor cells in the mammalian cochlea. We show that 1,563 and 1,616 TF genes are respectively expressed in IHCs and OHCs among 2,230 putative mouse TF genes. While 1,536 are commonly expressed in both populations, 73 genes are differentially expressed (with at least a twofold difference) in IHCs and 13 are differentially expressed in OHCs. Our datasets represent the first cell type-specific TF databases for two populations of sensory receptor cells and are key informational resources for understanding the molecular mechanism underlying the biological properties and phenotypical differences of these cells.

Highlights

While the genome is identical for nearly every cell in multicellular organisms, the gene expression profile for each cell is different
To determine what Transcription factors (TFs) genes are respectively expressed in adult inner hair cells (IHCs) and outer hair cells (OHCs), we analyzed the transcripts of each cell population
To get a better idea of the expression level of the TF genes in comparison to other genes expressed in IHCs, the abundance ranking of the TF genes among the 16,647 genes expressed in IHCs is presented

Summary

Introduction

While the genome is identical for nearly every cell in multicellular organisms, the gene expression profile for each cell is different. Diverse patterns of gene expression underlie phenotypic variances of different cell types [1,2]. Transcription factors (TFs) play an essential role in the complex regulation of gene expression patterns in each unique cell type [3]. A TF is a protein that binds to specific DNA sequence motifs, thereby controlling transcription of genetic.

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Conclusion