Messenger RNA profile analysis deciphers new Esrrb responsive genes in prostate cancer cells

BACKGROUND: Orphan nuclear receptor estrogen related receptor β (Esrrb or ERRβ) is well known in stem cells and early embryonic development. However, little is known about its function in cancer. METHOD: We investigated the mRNA profile alterations induced by Esrrb expression and its synthetic ligand DY131 in human prostate cancer DU145 cells via RNA-Seq analysis. RESULTS: We distinguished 67 mRNAs differentially expressed by Esrrb alone. Although DY131 alone did not change any gene, treatment of DY131 in the presence of Esrrb altered 1161 mRNAs. These observations indicated Esrrb had both ligand-independent and ligand-dependent activity. When Esrrb was expressed, DY131 treatment further regulated 15 Esrrb-altered mRNAs. DY131 acted as an antagonist for 11 of 15 mRNAs (wdr52, f13a1, pxdn, spns2, loc100506599, tagln, loc441454, tkel1, sema3f, zcwpw2, sdc2) and as an agonist for 4 of the 15 mRNAs (rarres3, oasl, padi2, ddx60). Gene ontology analyses showed altered genes are related to transcription and translation regulation, cell proliferation and apoptosis regulation, and cellular metabolism. CONCLUSION: Our results characterized mRNA profiles in DU145 prostate cancer cells driven by Esrrb expression and Esrrb ligand DY131, and provided multiple markers to characterize Esrrb’s function in Esrrb research. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12867-015-0049-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.