Genome-wide specificity of TALE-VP64 and dCas9-VP64-mediated gene activation. RNA-seq was performed on samples co-transfected with a set of four TALE-VP64 expression plasmids targeting either IL1RN (A) or HBG1/2 (C). In each case, the only genome-wide significant changes (false discovery rate <5%) in gene expression between the treatments and an empty plasmid-transfected control were increases in the expression of IL1RN or HBG1/2, respectively. (B,D) Comparison of RNA-seq measurements of gene expression after activating expression using TALE-VP64 (x-axis) or dCas9-VP64 (y-axis). (B) When targeting IL1RN, the TALE-VP64-mediated activation was slightly stronger. (D) When targeting HBG1/2, TALE-VP64 had a substantially stronger effect on expression. RNA-seq for dCas9-VP64 samples was published previously (Perez-Pinera et al. 2013a).
