Transcriptomic analyses of gene expression by CRISPR knockout of miR-214 in cervical cancer cells

In this study, we investigate the effect of one such micro RNA, miR-214 which is frequently down-regulated in cervical cancer. In this study, we either CRISPR knocked out or overexpressed miR-214 in cervical cancer cells and analyzed the global mRNA expression by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) It was observed that a total of 108 genes were upregulated and 178 downregulated between the samples, above and below the baseline respectively. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analysis reveal distinct biological processes and pathways. Analysis of gene regulatory networks also gave different network patterns in the two samples. We confirmed the RNA sequencing data for 10 genes; IFIF27, SMAD3, COX11, TP53INP1, ABL2, FGF8, TNFAIP3, NRG1, SP3 and MDM4 by Real-time PCR. This is the first report on the effect of miR-214 on global mRNA profile in cervical cancer cells. This study also reports new biomarkers for cervical cancer prognosis. •In this study we have investigated the effects of miR-214 on gene expression patterns in cervical cancer cells C33A.•We have either over expressed or CRISPR knocked out miR-214 from C33A cells.•Analysis of gene expression showed a total of 286 genes showing upregulation and downregulation between the samples, above and below their baseline expression respectively.•We also created gene regulatory networks comparing the miR-214 over expressed and knocked out samples with that of normal un-transfected control cells.•Finally we confirmed the RNA sequencing data for 10 highly relevant genes showing significant changes between the samples, by quantitative Real time PCR, which corroborated the RNA sequencing results.