Human pluripotent stem cells indefinitely proliferate and survive in culture while retaining genomic integrity, providing a unique opportunity to study human molecular biology. Here, we introduced an RNA interference-based protocol of inducible gene silencing in human embryonic stem cells, which has several advantages in handling simplicity/convenience, cost/time performance, and applicability. Using this method, we had succeeded to elucidate the isoform-unique roles of Rho-family small GTPases in human embryonic stem cells.
Keywords: Human embryonic stem cells; Inducible RNAi; Lentivirus; Rho small GTPase.