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Mek inhibition and Erk knockout (KO) have quite distinct effects on pluripotency maintenance in mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). To test whether there is an Erk-independent function of Mek, RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) is carried out on six samples, WT KH2 ESCs treated with or without PD0325901 (PD) for 48 h (KH2_PD and KH2, respectively), iErk1; Erk KO ESCs cultured in the presence of Dox (P0), 48 and 96 h after Dox withdrawal (P1 and P2, respectively), and iErk1; Erk KO ESCs cultured without Dox for 96 h, and treated with PD in the last 48 h (P2_PD). These RNA-seq data demonstrate that Mek inhibition has quite different effect on the transcriptional profile of mouse ESCs, compared to Erk KO. Moreover, a significant fraction of genes is regulated by Mek inhibition, regardless of the presence or absence of Erk, indicating an Erk-independent function of Mek. RNA-seq data are deposited in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets under accession number GSE70304. Keywords: Erk, Mek, Mouse embryonic stem cells