mRNA sequencing of human AC16 cells expressing PCBP1, PCBP2, or both

To explore potential functional implications of isoform usage shifts, we examined the effect of PCBP1/PCBP2 expression in human AC16 cardiac cells. PCBP1/PCBP2 are KH-domain-containing RNA-binding proteins (RBP) that have been implicated in transcriptional, post-transcriptional and translational regulations. How PCBP1 and PCBP2 are functionally differentiated remains a subject of interest and few reports have outlined their function in cardiac cells. The two paralogs share close homology (~85% identical sequences) and partially overlapping RNA binding targets, suggesting they may form mutually regulatory relationships. Human and mouse PCBP1 sequences share 100.0% identity, whereas human and mouse PCBP2 are identical except in 5 positions; therefore we expressed the human/mouse PCBP1 and human PCBP2 coding sequences in human AC16 cardiac cells. Immunofluorescence imaging confirms broad cytonuclear localization of both paralogs under overexpression. The cells were then subjected to RNA sequencing to determine the effects of PCBP1/2 on gene expression.