Interactome of a cardiopoietic precursor

Abstract

Pluripotency is a hallmark feature of embryonic stem cells, but concomitantly expressed transcripts confound resolution of specific developmental signaling axes. Ratification of a molecular fingerprint critical to cardiogenesis mandated investigation of gene expression in stem-cell-derived cardiac precursors undergoing guided differentiation to define genomic networks responsible for cardiogenic progression. Upregulated transcripts organized into a discrete network with enhanced themes of "cardiovascular development" and "cellular movement", while downregulated transcripts demonstrated significant overrepresentation of "oncogenesis" and "gene expression". Ontological characterization of molecular functions revealed robust enrichment of binding factor classifications that bolstered upregulated themes of cardiovascular development and cellular movement, and significant nonstochastic overrepresentation of gene metabolism that drove oncogenic and gene expression network themes in downregulated transcripts. Collectively, these global adjustments engaged a systems biology repertoire switch towards functional specification. Thus, resolution of a precursor pedigree reveals coordinated themes that facilitate a nascent interactome which guides embryonic stem cell cardiopoiesis.