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Burnham KL, Milind N, Lee W, Kwok AJ, Cano-Gamez K, Mi Y, Geoghegan CG, Zhang P, McKechnie S, Soranzo N, Hinds CJ, Knight JC, Davenport EE. eQTLs identify regulatory networks and drivers of variation in the individual response to sepsis. CELL GENOMICS 2024:100587. [PMID: 38897207 DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2024.100587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2023] [Revised: 03/27/2024] [Accepted: 05/28/2024] [Indexed: 06/21/2024]
Abstract
Sepsis is a clinical syndrome of life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated response to infection, for which disease heterogeneity is a major obstacle to developing targeted treatments. We have previously identified gene-expression-based patient subgroups (sepsis response signatures [SRS]) informative for outcome and underlying pathophysiology. Here, we aimed to investigate the role of genetic variation in determining the host transcriptomic response and to delineate regulatory networks underlying SRS. Using genotyping and RNA-sequencing data on 638 adult sepsis patients, we report 16,049 independent expression (eQTLs) and 32 co-expression module (modQTLs) quantitative trait loci in this disease context. We identified significant interactions between SRS and genotype for 1,578 SNP-gene pairs and combined transcription factor (TF) binding site information (SNP2TFBS) and predicted regulon activity (DoRothEA) to identify candidate upstream regulators. Overall, these approaches identified putative mechanistic links between host genetic variation, cell subtypes, and the individual transcriptomic response to infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie L Burnham
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
| | - Nikhil Milind
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK; University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Wanseon Lee
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
| | - Andrew J Kwok
- Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Kiki Cano-Gamez
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK; Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Yuxin Mi
- Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Ping Zhang
- Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Chinese Academy of Medical Science Oxford Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Nicole Soranzo
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
| | - Charles J Hinds
- Centre for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, William Harvey Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Julian C Knight
- Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Chinese Academy of Medical Science Oxford Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
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2
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Nieuwenhuis TO, Giles HH, Arking JVA, Patil AH, Shi W, McCall MN, Halushka MK. Patterns of Unwanted Biological and Technical Expression Variation Among 49 Human Tissues. J Transl Med 2024; 104:102069. [PMID: 38670317 DOI: 10.1016/j.labinv.2024.102069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2023] [Revised: 03/21/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Tissue gene expression studies are impacted by biological and technical sources of variation, which can be broadly classified into wanted and unwanted variation. The latter, if not addressed, results in misleading biological conclusions. Methods have been proposed to reduce unwanted variation, such as normalization and batch correction. A more accurate understanding of all causes of variation could significantly improve the ability of these methods to remove unwanted variation while retaining variation corresponding to the biological question of interest. We used 17,282 samples from 49 human tissues in the Genotype-Tissue Expression data set (v8) to investigate patterns and causes of expression variation. Transcript expression was transformed to z-scores, and only the most variable 2% of transcripts were evaluated and clustered based on coexpression patterns. Clustered gene sets were assigned to different biological or technical causes based on histologic appearances and metadata elements. We identified 522 variable transcript clusters (median: 11 per tissue) among the samples. Of these, 63% were confidently explained, 16% were likely explained, 7% were low confidence explanations, and 14% had no clear cause. Histologic analysis annotated 46 clusters. Other common causes of variability included sex, sequencing contamination, immunoglobulin diversity, and compositional tissue differences. Less common biological causes included death interval (Hardy score), disease status, and age. Technical causes included blood draw timing and harvesting differences. Many of the causes of variation in bulk tissue expression were identifiable in the Tabula Sapiens data set of single-cell expression. This is among the largest explorations of the underlying sources of tissue expression variation. It uncovered expected and unexpected causes of variable gene expression and demonstrated the utility of matched histologic specimens. It further demonstrated the value of acquiring meaningful tissue harvesting metadata elements to use for improved normalization, batch correction, and analysis of both bulk and single-cell RNA-seq data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim O Nieuwenhuis
- Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; McKusick-Nathans Institute, Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Hunter H Giles
- McKusick-Nathans Institute, Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Jeremy V A Arking
- Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Arun H Patil
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Wen Shi
- McKusick-Nathans Institute, Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
| | - Matthew N McCall
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York; Department of Biomedical Genetics, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York
| | - Marc K Halushka
- Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.
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3
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Emani PS, Liu JJ, Clarke D, Jensen M, Warrell J, Gupta C, Meng R, Lee CY, Xu S, Dursun C, Lou S, Chen Y, Chu Z, Galeev T, Hwang A, Li Y, Ni P, Zhou X, Bakken TE, Bendl J, Bicks L, Chatterjee T, Cheng L, Cheng Y, Dai Y, Duan Z, Flaherty M, Fullard JF, Gancz M, Garrido-Martín D, Gaynor-Gillett S, Grundman J, Hawken N, Henry E, Hoffman GE, Huang A, Jiang Y, Jin T, Jorstad NL, Kawaguchi R, Khullar S, Liu J, Liu J, Liu S, Ma S, Margolis M, Mazariegos S, Moore J, Moran JR, Nguyen E, Phalke N, Pjanic M, Pratt H, Quintero D, Rajagopalan AS, Riesenmy TR, Shedd N, Shi M, Spector M, Terwilliger R, Travaglini KJ, Wamsley B, Wang G, Xia Y, Xiao S, Yang AC, Zheng S, Gandal MJ, Lee D, Lein ES, Roussos P, Sestan N, Weng Z, White KP, Won H, Girgenti MJ, Zhang J, Wang D, Geschwind D, Gerstein M. Single-cell genomics and regulatory networks for 388 human brains. Science 2024; 384:eadi5199. [PMID: 38781369 DOI: 10.1126/science.adi5199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
Single-cell genomics is a powerful tool for studying heterogeneous tissues such as the brain. Yet little is understood about how genetic variants influence cell-level gene expression. Addressing this, we uniformly processed single-nuclei, multiomics datasets into a resource comprising >2.8 million nuclei from the prefrontal cortex across 388 individuals. For 28 cell types, we assessed population-level variation in expression and chromatin across gene families and drug targets. We identified >550,000 cell type-specific regulatory elements and >1.4 million single-cell expression quantitative trait loci, which we used to build cell-type regulatory and cell-to-cell communication networks. These networks manifest cellular changes in aging and neuropsychiatric disorders. We further constructed an integrative model accurately imputing single-cell expression and simulating perturbations; the model prioritized ~250 disease-risk genes and drug targets with associated cell types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Prashant S Emani
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Jason J Liu
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Declan Clarke
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Matthew Jensen
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Jonathan Warrell
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Chirag Gupta
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA
| | - Ran Meng
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Che Yu Lee
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Siwei Xu
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Cagatay Dursun
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Shaoke Lou
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Yuhang Chen
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Zhiyuan Chu
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Timur Galeev
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Ahyeon Hwang
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
- Mathematical, Computational and Systems Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Yunyang Li
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Pengyu Ni
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Xiao Zhou
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | | | - Jaroslav Bendl
- Center for Disease Neurogenomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Lucy Bicks
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Tanima Chatterjee
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | | | - Yuyan Cheng
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Yi Dai
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Ziheng Duan
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | | | - John F Fullard
- Center for Disease Neurogenomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Michael Gancz
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Diego Garrido-Martín
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Spain
| | - Sophia Gaynor-Gillett
- Tempus Labs, Chicago, IL 60654, USA
- Department of Biology, Cornell College, Mount Vernon, IA 52314, USA
| | - Jennifer Grundman
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Natalie Hawken
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Ella Henry
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Gabriel E Hoffman
- Center for Disease Neurogenomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY 10468, USA
- Center for Precision Medicine and Translational Therapeutics, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY 10468, USA
| | - Ao Huang
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Yunzhe Jiang
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Ting Jin
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA
| | | | - Riki Kawaguchi
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Saniya Khullar
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA
| | - Jianyin Liu
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Junhao Liu
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Shuang Liu
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA
| | - Shaojie Ma
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
- Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
| | | | - Samantha Mazariegos
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Jill Moore
- Department of Genomics and Computational Biology, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
| | | | - Eric Nguyen
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Nishigandha Phalke
- Department of Genomics and Computational Biology, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
| | - Milos Pjanic
- Center for Disease Neurogenomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Henry Pratt
- Department of Genomics and Computational Biology, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
| | - Diana Quintero
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | | | - Tiernon R Riesenmy
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Nicole Shedd
- Department of Genomics and Computational Biology, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
| | | | | | - Rosemarie Terwilliger
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | | | - Brie Wamsley
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Gaoyuan Wang
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Yan Xia
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Shaohua Xiao
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Andrew C Yang
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Suchen Zheng
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Michael J Gandal
- Interdepartmental Program in Bioinformatics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA, 90095, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Donghoon Lee
- Center for Disease Neurogenomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
| | - Ed S Lein
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
| | - Panos Roussos
- Center for Disease Neurogenomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY 10468, USA
- Center for Precision Medicine and Translational Therapeutics, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY 10468, USA
| | - Nenad Sestan
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, USA
| | - Zhiping Weng
- Department of Genomics and Computational Biology, UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
| | - Kevin P White
- Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 117597 Singapore
| | - Hyejung Won
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Matthew J Girgenti
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Clinical Neuroscience Division, National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System, West Haven, CT 06516, USA
| | - Jing Zhang
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Daifeng Wang
- Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53705, USA
- Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Daniel Geschwind
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Semel Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Institute for Precision Health, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Mark Gerstein
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics & Data Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
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4
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Wen C, Margolis M, Dai R, Zhang P, Przytycki PF, Vo DD, Bhattacharya A, Matoba N, Tang M, Jiao C, Kim M, Tsai E, Hoh C, Aygün N, Walker RL, Chatzinakos C, Clarke D, Pratt H, Peters MA, Gerstein M, Daskalakis NP, Weng Z, Jaffe AE, Kleinman JE, Hyde TM, Weinberger DR, Bray NJ, Sestan N, Geschwind DH, Roeder K, Gusev A, Pasaniuc B, Stein JL, Love MI, Pollard KS, Liu C, Gandal MJ. Cross-ancestry atlas of gene, isoform, and splicing regulation in the developing human brain. Science 2024; 384:eadh0829. [PMID: 38781368 DOI: 10.1126/science.adh0829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024]
Abstract
Neuropsychiatric genome-wide association studies (GWASs), including those for autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, show strong enrichment for regulatory elements in the developing brain. However, prioritizing risk genes and mechanisms is challenging without a unified regulatory atlas. Across 672 diverse developing human brains, we identified 15,752 genes harboring gene, isoform, and/or splicing quantitative trait loci, mapping 3739 to cellular contexts. Gene expression heritability drops during development, likely reflecting both increasing cellular heterogeneity and the intrinsic properties of neuronal maturation. Isoform-level regulation, particularly in the second trimester, mediated the largest proportion of GWAS heritability. Through colocalization, we prioritized mechanisms for about 60% of GWAS loci across five disorders, exceeding adult brain findings. Finally, we contextualized results within gene and isoform coexpression networks, revealing the comprehensive landscape of transcriptome regulation in development and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cindy Wen
- Interdepartmental Program in Bioinformatics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Michael Margolis
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Rujia Dai
- Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
| | - Pan Zhang
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Pawel F Przytycki
- Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Daniel D Vo
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Arjun Bhattacharya
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Nana Matoba
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Miao Tang
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Chuan Jiao
- Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
- Université Paris Cité, Institute of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Paris (IPNP), INSERM U1266, Team Krebs, 75014 Paris, France
| | - Minsoo Kim
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Ellen Tsai
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Celine Hoh
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Nil Aygün
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Rebecca L Walker
- Interdepartmental Program in Bioinformatics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Christos Chatzinakos
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA
- McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02478, USA
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Declan Clarke
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Henry Pratt
- Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
| | - Mette A Peters
- CNS Data Coordination Group, Sage Bionetworks, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Mark Gerstein
- Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Nikolaos P Daskalakis
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA
- McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA 02478, USA
- Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Zhiping Weng
- Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA
| | - Andrew E Jaffe
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Neumora Therapeutics, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
| | - Joel E Kleinman
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Thomas M Hyde
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Daniel R Weinberger
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
- Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
| | - Nicholas J Bray
- MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics & Genomics, Division of Psychological Medicine & Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK
| | - Nenad Sestan
- Department of Comparative Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
- Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Daniel H Geschwind
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Program in Neurogenetics, Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Institute for Precision Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Kathryn Roeder
- Department of Statistics & Data Science, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
- Computational Biology Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
| | - Alexander Gusev
- Department of Medical Oncology, Division of Population Sciences, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA
- Division of Genetics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Bogdan Pasaniuc
- Interdepartmental Program in Bioinformatics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Institute for Precision Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Computational Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | - Jason L Stein
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Michael I Love
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Katherine S Pollard
- Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
- Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
- Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA
| | - Chunyu Liu
- Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA
- Center for Medical Genetics & Hunan Key Laboratory of Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410008, China
| | - Michael J Gandal
- Interdepartmental Program in Bioinformatics, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Lifespan Brain Institute, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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5
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Wang L, Khunsriraksakul C, Markus H, Chen D, Zhang F, Chen F, Zhan X, Carrel L, Liu DJ, Jiang B. Integrating single cell expression quantitative trait loci summary statistics to understand complex trait risk genes. Nat Commun 2024; 15:4260. [PMID: 38769300 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48143-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 04/22/2024] [Indexed: 05/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) is a popular approach to dissect the functional consequence of disease associated non-coding variants. Most existing TWAS use bulk tissues and may not have the resolution to reveal cell-type specific target genes. Single-cell expression quantitative trait loci (sc-eQTL) datasets are emerging. The largest bulk- and sc-eQTL datasets are most conveniently available as summary statistics, but have not been broadly utilized in TWAS. Here, we present a new method EXPRESSO (EXpression PREdiction with Summary Statistics Only), to analyze sc-eQTL summary statistics, which also integrates 3D genomic data and epigenomic annotation to prioritize causal variants. EXPRESSO substantially improves existing methods. We apply EXPRESSO to analyze multi-ancestry GWAS datasets for 14 autoimmune diseases. EXPRESSO uniquely identifies 958 novel gene x trait associations, which is 26% more than the second-best method. Among them, 492 are unique to cell type level analysis and missed by TWAS using whole blood. We also develop a cell type aware drug repurposing pipeline, which leverages EXPRESSO results to identify drug compounds that can reverse disease gene expressions in relevant cell types. Our results point to multiple drugs with therapeutic potentials, including metformin for type 1 diabetes, and vitamin K for ulcerative colitis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lida Wang
- Department of Public Health Sciences; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Chachrit Khunsriraksakul
- Bioinformatics and Genomics PhD Program; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
- Institute for Personalized Medicine; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Havell Markus
- Bioinformatics and Genomics PhD Program; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
- Institute for Personalized Medicine; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Dieyi Chen
- Department of Public Health Sciences; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Fan Zhang
- Bioinformatics and Genomics PhD Program; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Fang Chen
- Department of Public Health Sciences; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Xiaowei Zhan
- Department of Statistical Science, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, US
- Quantitative Biomedical Research Center, Department of Population and Data Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, US
- Center for Genetics of Host Defense, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, US
| | - Laura Carrel
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.
| | - Dajiang J Liu
- Department of Public Health Sciences; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Bioinformatics and Genomics PhD Program; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Department of Statistical Science, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, US.
| | - Bibo Jiang
- Department of Public Health Sciences; Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA.
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6
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Starr AL, Nishimura T, Igarashi KJ, Funamoto C, Nakauchi H, Fraser HB. Disentangling cell-intrinsic and extrinsic factors underlying gene expression evolution. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.06.592777. [PMID: 38798687 PMCID: PMC11118348 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.06.592777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Chimeras have played a foundational role in biology, for example by enabling the classification of developmental processes into those driven intrinsically by individual cells versus those driven extrinsically by their extracellular environment. Here, we extend this framework to decompose evolutionary divergence in gene expression and other quantitative traits into cell-intrinsic, extrinsic, and intrinsic-extrinsic interaction components. Applying this framework to reciprocal rat-mouse chimeras, we found that the majority of gene expression divergence is attributable to cell-intrinsic factors, though extrinsic factors also play an integral role. For example, a rat-like extracellular environment extrinsically up-regulates the expression of a key transcriptional regulator of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response in some but not all cell types, which in turn strongly predicts extrinsic up-regulation of its target genes and of the ER stress response pathway as a whole. This effect is also seen at the protein level, suggesting propagation through multiple regulatory levels. We also demonstrate that our framework is applicable to a cellular trait, neuronal differentiation, and estimated the intrinsic and extrinsic contributions to its divergence. Finally, we show that imprinted genes are dramatically mis-expressed in species-mismatched environments, suggesting that mismatch between rapidly evolving intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms controlling gene imprinting may contribute to barriers to interspecies chimerism. Overall, our conceptual framework opens new avenues to investigate the mechanistic basis of evolutionary divergence in gene expression and other quantitative traits in any multicellular organism.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Toshiya Nishimura
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
- WPI Premium Research Institute for Human Metaverse Medicine (WPI-PRIMe), Osaka University, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan (current address for T.N.)
- Division of Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine, Department of Genome Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
| | - Kyomi J. Igarashi
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Chihiro Funamoto
- Division of Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine, Department of Genome Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
| | - Hiromitsu Nakauchi
- Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
- Division of Stem Cell Therapy, Distinguished Professor Unit, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-8639, Japan
| | - Hunter B. Fraser
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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7
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Qi T, Song L, Guo Y, Chen C, Yang J. From genetic associations to genes: methods, applications, and challenges. Trends Genet 2024:S0168-9525(24)00095-7. [PMID: 38734482 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2024.04.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2023] [Revised: 04/15/2024] [Accepted: 04/16/2024] [Indexed: 05/13/2024]
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified numerous genetic loci associated with human traits and diseases. However, pinpointing the causal genes remains a challenge, which impedes the translation of GWAS findings into biological insights and medical applications. In this review, we provide an in-depth overview of the methods and technologies used for prioritizing genes from GWAS loci, including gene-based association tests, integrative analysis of GWAS and molecular quantitative trait loci (xQTL) data, linking GWAS variants to target genes through enhancer-gene connection maps, and network-based prioritization. We also outline strategies for generating context-dependent xQTL data and their applications in gene prioritization. We further highlight the potential of gene prioritization in drug repurposing. Lastly, we discuss future challenges and opportunities in this field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ting Qi
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou 310024, China; School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, China.
| | - Liyang Song
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou 310024, China; School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, China
| | - Yazhou Guo
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou 310024, China; School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, China
| | - Chang Chen
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou 310024, China; School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, China
| | - Jian Yang
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou 310024, China; School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, China.
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8
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Schaffner SL, Casazza W, Artaud F, Konwar C, Merrill SM, Domenighetti C, Schulze-Hentrich JM, Lesage S, Brice A, Corvol JC, Mostafavi S, Dennis JK, Elbaz A, Kobor MS. Genetic variation and pesticide exposure influence blood DNA methylation signatures in females with early-stage Parkinson's disease. NPJ Parkinsons Dis 2024; 10:98. [PMID: 38714693 PMCID: PMC11076573 DOI: 10.1038/s41531-024-00704-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2024] [Indexed: 05/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Although sex, genetics, and exposures can individually influence risk for sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD), the joint contributions of these factors to the epigenetic etiology of PD have not been comprehensively assessed. Here, we profiled sex-stratified genome-wide blood DNAm patterns, SNP genotype, and pesticide exposure in agricultural workers (71 early-stage PD cases, 147 controls) and explored replication in three independent samples of varying demographics (n = 218, 222, and 872). Using a region-based approach, we found more associations of blood DNAm with PD in females (69 regions) than in males (2 regions, Δβadj| ≥0.03, padj ≤ 0.05). For 48 regions in females, models including genotype or genotype and pesticide exposure substantially improved in explaining interindividual variation in DNAm (padj ≤ 0.05), and accounting for these variables decreased the estimated effect of PD on DNAm. The results suggested that genotype, and to a lesser degree, genotype-exposure interactions contributed to variation in PD-associated DNAm. Our findings should be further explored in larger study populations and in experimental systems, preferably with precise measures of exposure.
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Affiliation(s)
- S L Schaffner
- Edwin S. H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - W Casazza
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Bioinformatics Graduate Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - F Artaud
- Université Paris-Saclay, UVSQ, Inserm, Gustave Roussy, CESP, 94805, Villejuif, France
| | - C Konwar
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - S M Merrill
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - C Domenighetti
- Université Paris-Saclay, UVSQ, Inserm, Gustave Roussy, CESP, 94805, Villejuif, France
| | - J M Schulze-Hentrich
- Department of Genetics/Epigenetics, Faculty NT, Saarland University, 66041, Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - S Lesage
- Sorbonne Université, Institut du Cerveau-Paris Brain Institute-ICM, INSERM, CNRS, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
| | - A Brice
- Sorbonne Université, Institut du Cerveau-Paris Brain Institute-ICM, INSERM, CNRS, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
| | - J C Corvol
- Sorbonne Université, Institut du Cerveau-Paris Brain Institute-ICM, INSERM, CNRS, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris, France
- Sorbonne University, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Paris Brain Insitute - ICM, Inserm, CNRS, Department of Neurology and CIC Neurosciences, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, France
| | - S Mostafavi
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Bioinformatics Graduate Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Paul Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - J K Dennis
- Edwin S. H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Bioinformatics Graduate Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - A Elbaz
- Université Paris-Saclay, UVSQ, Inserm, Gustave Roussy, CESP, 94805, Villejuif, France
| | - M S Kobor
- Edwin S. H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
- Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, BC Children's Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
- Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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9
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Tang Y, Zhang J, Li W, Liu X, Chen S, Mi S, Yang J, Teng J, Fang L, Yu Y. Identification and characterization of whole blood gene expression and splicing quantitative trait loci during early to mid-lactation of dairy cattle. BMC Genomics 2024; 25:445. [PMID: 38711039 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-024-10346-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2023] [Accepted: 04/25/2024] [Indexed: 05/08/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Characterization of regulatory variants (e.g., gene expression quantitative trait loci, eQTL; gene splicing QTL, sQTL) is crucial for biologically interpreting molecular mechanisms underlying loci associated with complex traits. However, regulatory variants in dairy cattle, particularly in specific biological contexts (e.g., distinct lactation stages), remain largely unknown. In this study, we explored regulatory variants in whole blood samples collected during early to mid-lactation (22-150 days after calving) of 101 Holstein cows and analyzed them to decipher the regulatory mechanisms underlying complex traits in dairy cattle. RESULTS We identified 14,303 genes and 227,705 intron clusters expressed in the white blood cells of 101 cattle. The average heritability of gene expression and intron excision ratio explained by cis-SNPs is 0.28 ± 0.13 and 0.25 ± 0.13, respectively. We identified 23,485 SNP-gene expression pairs and 18,166 SNP-intron cluster pairs in dairy cattle during early to mid-lactation. Compared with the 2,380,457 cis-eQTLs reported to be present in blood in the Cattle Genotype-Tissue Expression atlas (CattleGTEx), only 6,114 cis-eQTLs (P < 0.05) were detected in the present study. By conducting colocalization analysis between cis-e/sQTL and the results of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) from four traits, we identified a cis-e/sQTL (rs109421300) of the DGAT1 gene that might be a key marker in early to mid-lactation for milk yield, fat yield, protein yield, and somatic cell score (PP4 > 0.6). Finally, transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) revealed certain genes (e.g., FAM83H and TBC1D17) whose expression in white blood cells was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with complex traits. CONCLUSIONS This study investigated the genetic regulation of gene expression and alternative splicing in dairy cows during early to mid-lactation and provided new insights into the regulatory mechanisms underlying complex traits of economic importance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yongjie Tang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture & National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Jinning Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture & National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Wenlong Li
- Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture & National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Xueqin Liu
- Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture & National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Siqian Chen
- Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture & National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Siyuan Mi
- Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture & National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Jinyan Yang
- Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture & National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China
| | - Jinyan Teng
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
| | - Lingzhao Fang
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, 8000, Denmark.
| | - Ying Yu
- Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture & National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China.
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10
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Jarosławska J, Kordas B, Miłowski T, Juranek JK. Mammalian Diaphanous1 signalling in neurovascular complications of diabetes. Eur J Neurosci 2024; 59:2628-2645. [PMID: 38491850 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.16310] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/18/2024] [Indexed: 03/18/2024]
Abstract
Over the past few decades, diabetes gradually has become one of the top non-communicable disorders, affecting 476.0 million in 2017 and is predicted to reach 570.9 million people in 2025. It is estimated that 70 to 100% of all diabetic patients will develop some if not all, diabetic complications over the course of the disease. Despite different symptoms, mechanisms underlying the development of diabetic complications are similar, likely stemming from deficits in both neuronal and vascular components supplying hyperglycaemia-susceptible tissues and organs. Diaph1, protein diaphanous homolog 1, although mainly known for its regulatory role in structural modification of actin and related cytoskeleton proteins, in recent years attracted research attention as a cytoplasmic partner of the receptor of advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) a signal transduction receptor, whose activation triggers an increase in proinflammatory molecules, oxidative stressors and cytokines in diabetes and its related complications. Both Diaph1 and RAGE are also a part of the RhoA signalling cascade, playing a significant role in the development of neurovascular disturbances underlying diabetes-related complications. In this review, based on the existing knowledge as well as compelling findings from our past and present studies, we address the role of Diaph1 signalling in metabolic stress and neurovascular degeneration in diabetic complications. In light of the most recent developments in biochemical, genomic and transcriptomic research, we describe current theories on the aetiology of diabetes complications, highlighting the function of the Diaph1 signalling system and its role in diabetes pathophysiology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Jarosławska
- Department of Biological Functions of Food, Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Olsztyn, Poland
| | - Bernard Kordas
- Department of Human Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Medicine, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland
| | - Tadeusz Miłowski
- Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Public Health, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Olsztyn, Poland
| | - Judyta K Juranek
- Department of Human Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Medicine, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland
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11
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Xu J, Abdulsalam Khaleel R, Zaidan HK, Faisal Mutee A, Fahmi Fawy K, Gehlot A, Abbas AH, Arias Gonzáles JL, Amin AH, Ruiz-Balvin MC, Imannezhad S, Bahrami A, Akhavan-Sigari R. Discovery of common molecular signatures and drug repurposing for COVID-19/Asthma comorbidity: ACE2 and multi-partite networks. Cell Cycle 2024:1-30. [PMID: 38640424 DOI: 10.1080/15384101.2024.2340859] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2023] [Accepted: 04/04/2024] [Indexed: 04/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is identified as the functional receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the ongoing global coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aimed to elucidate potential therapeutic avenues by scrutinizing approved drugs through the identification of the genetic signature associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in individuals with asthma. This exploration was conducted through an integrated analysis, encompassing interaction networks between the ACE2 receptor and common host (co-host) factors implicated in COVID-19/asthma comorbidity. The comprehensive analysis involved the identification of common differentially expressed genes (cDEGs) and hub-cDEGs, functional annotations, interaction networks, gene set variation analysis (GSVA), gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), and module construction. Interaction networks were used to identify overlapping disease modules and potential drug targets. Computational biology and molecular docking analyzes were utilized to discern functional drug modules. Subsequently, the impact of the identified drugs on the expression of hub-cDEGs was experimentally validated using a mouse model. A total of 153 cDEGs or co-host factors associated with ACE2 were identified in the COVID-19 and asthma comorbidity. Among these, seven significant cDEGs and proteins - namely, HRAS, IFNG, JUN, CDH1, TLR4, ICAM1, and SCD-were recognized as pivotal host factors linked to ACE2. Regulatory network analysis of hub-cDEGs revealed eight top-ranked transcription factors (TFs) proteins and nine microRNAs as key regulatory factors operating at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, respectively. Molecular docking simulations led to the proposal of 10 top-ranked repurposable drug molecules (Rapamycin, Ivermectin, Everolimus, Quercetin, Estradiol, Entrectinib, Nilotinib, Conivaptan, Radotinib, and Venetoclax) as potential treatment options for COVID-19 in individuals with comorbid asthma. Validation analysis demonstrated that Rapamycin effectively inhibited ICAM1 expression in the HDM-stimulated mice group (p < 0.01). This study unveils the common pathogenesis and genetic signature underlying asthma and SARS-CoV-2 infection, delineated by the interaction networks of ACE2-related host factors. These findings provide valuable insights for the design and discovery of drugs aimed at more effective therapeutics within the context of lung disease comorbidities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiajun Xu
- College of Veterinary & Life Sciences, the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
| | | | | | | | - Khaled Fahmi Fawy
- Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia
| | - Anita Gehlot
- Uttaranchal Institute of Technology, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, India
| | | | - José Luis Arias Gonzáles
- Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Ali H Amin
- Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
| | | | - Shima Imannezhad
- Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
| | - Abolfazl Bahrami
- Biomedical Center for Systems Biology Science Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
- Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
| | - Reza Akhavan-Sigari
- Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
- Department of Health Care Management and Clinical Research, Collegium Humanum, Warsaw, Poland
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12
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Choi J, Lee SM, Norwitz ER, Kim JH, Jung YM, Park CW, Jun JK, Lee D, Jin Y, Kim S, Cha B, Park JS, Kim JI. Placental expression quantitative trait loci in an East Asian population. HGG ADVANCES 2024; 5:100276. [PMID: 38310352 PMCID: PMC10883826 DOI: 10.1016/j.xhgg.2024.100276] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2023] [Revised: 01/29/2024] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 02/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis measures the contribution of genetic variation in gene expression on complex traits. Although this methodology has been used to examine gene regulation in numerous human tissues, eQTL research in solid tissues is relatively lacking. We conducted eQTL analysis on placentas collected from an East Asian population in an effort to identify gene regulatory mechanisms in this tissue. Placentas (n = 102) were collected at the time of cesarean delivery. mRNA was extracted, sequenced with NGS, and compared with matched maternal and fetal DNA arrays performed using maternal and neonatal cord blood. Linear regression modeling was performed using tensorQTL. Fine-mapping along with epigenomic annotation was used to select putative functional variants. We identified 2,703 coding genes that contained at least one eQTL with statistical significance (false discovery rate <0.05). After fine-mapping, we found 108 previously unreported eQTL variants with posterior inclusion probability >0.1. Of these, 19% were located in genomic regions with evidence from public placental epigenome suggesting that they may be functionally relevant. For example, variant rs28379289 located in the placenta-specific regulatory region changes the binding affinity of transcription factor leading to higher expression of LGALS3, which is known to affect placental function. This study expands the knowledge base of regulatory elements within the human placenta and identifies 108 previously unreported placenta eQTL signals, which are listed in our publicly available GMI eQTL database. Further studies are needed to identify and characterize genetic regulatory mechanisms that affect placental function in normal pregnancy and placenta-related diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaeyong Choi
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Genomic Medicine Institute, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
| | - Seung Mi Lee
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | | | - Ji Hoi Kim
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Young Mi Jung
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Chan-Wook Park
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Jong Kwan Jun
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
| | - Dakyung Lee
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Genomic Medicine Institute, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
| | - Yongjoon Jin
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Genomic Medicine Institute, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
| | - Sookyung Kim
- Genomic Medicine Institute, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
| | - Bukyoung Cha
- Genomic Medicine Institute, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
| | - Joong Shin Park
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
| | - Jong-Il Kim
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea; Genomic Medicine Institute, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
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13
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Li JL, Jain N, Tamayo LI, Tong L, Jasmine F, Kibriya MG, Demanelis K, Oliva M, Chen LS, Pierce BL. The association of cigarette smoking with DNA methylation and gene expression in human tissue samples. Am J Hum Genet 2024; 111:636-653. [PMID: 38490207 PMCID: PMC11023923 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2024.02.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2023] [Revised: 02/17/2024] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 03/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Cigarette smoking adversely affects many aspects of human health, and epigenetic responses to smoking may reflect mechanisms that mediate or defend against these effects. Prior studies of smoking and DNA methylation (DNAm), typically measured in leukocytes, have identified numerous smoking-associated regions (e.g., AHRR). To identify smoking-associated DNAm features in typically inaccessible tissues, we generated array-based DNAm data for 916 tissue samples from the GTEx (Genotype-Tissue Expression) project representing 9 tissue types (lung, colon, ovary, prostate, blood, breast, testis, kidney, and muscle). We identified 6,350 smoking-associated CpGs in lung tissue (n = 212) and 2,735 in colon tissue (n = 210), most not reported previously. For all 7 other tissue types (sample sizes 38-153), no clear associations were observed (false discovery rate 0.05), but some tissues showed enrichment for smoking-associated CpGs reported previously. For 1,646 loci (in lung) and 22 (in colon), smoking was associated with both DNAm and local gene expression. For loci detected in both lung and colon (e.g., AHRR, CYP1B1, CYP1A1), top CpGs often differed between tissues, but similar clusters of hyper- or hypomethylated CpGs were observed, with hypomethylation at regulatory elements corresponding to increased expression. For lung tissue, 17 hallmark gene sets were enriched for smoking-associated CpGs, including xenobiotic- and cancer-related gene sets. At least four smoking-associated regions in lung were impacted by lung methylation quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that co-localize with genome-wide association study (GWAS) signals for lung function (FEV1/FVC), suggesting epigenetic alterations can mediate the effects of smoking on lung health. Our multi-tissue approach has identified smoking-associated regions in disease-relevant tissues, including effects that are shared across tissue types.
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Affiliation(s)
- James L Li
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Interdisciplinary Scientist Training Program, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Niyati Jain
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Committee on Genetics, Genomics, Systems Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Lizeth I Tamayo
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Lin Tong
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Farzana Jasmine
- Institute for Population and Precision Health (IPPH), Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Muhammad G Kibriya
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Kathryn Demanelis
- Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA; UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, USA
| | - Meritxell Oliva
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Genomics Research Center, AbbVie, North Chicago, IL 60064, USA
| | - Lin S Chen
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Brandon L Pierce
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA; Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
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14
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Ng II, Zhang J, Tian T, Peng Q, Huang Z, Xiao K, Yao X, Ng L, Zeng J, Tang H. Network-based screening identifies sitagliptin as an antitumor drug targeting dendritic cells. J Immunother Cancer 2024; 12:e008254. [PMID: 38458637 PMCID: PMC10921530 DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2023-008254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/19/2024] [Indexed: 03/10/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Dendritic cell (DC)-mediated antigen presentation is essential for the priming and activation of tumor-specific T cells. However, few drugs that specifically manipulate DC functions are available. The identification of drugs targeting DC holds great promise for cancer immunotherapy. METHODS We observed that type 1 conventional DCs (cDC1s) initiated a distinct transcriptional program during antigen presentation. We used a network-based approach to screen for cDC1-targeting therapeutics. The antitumor potency and underlying mechanisms of the candidate drug were investigated in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS Sitagliptin, an oral gliptin widely used for type 2 diabetes, was identified as a drug that targets DCs. In mouse models, sitagliptin inhibited tumor growth by enhancing cDC1-mediated antigen presentation, leading to better T-cell activation. Mechanistically, inhibition of dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) by sitagliptin prevented the truncation and degradation of chemokines/cytokines that are important for DC activation. Sitagliptin enhanced cancer immunotherapy by facilitating the priming of antigen-specific T cells by DCs. In humans, the use of sitagliptin correlated with a lower risk of tumor recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer undergoing curative surgery. CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that sitagliptin-mediated DPP4 inhibition promotes antitumor immune response by augmenting cDC1 functions. These data suggest that sitagliptin can be repurposed as an antitumor drug targeting DC, which provides a potential strategy for cancer immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ian-Ian Ng
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Jiaqi Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Tingzhong Tian
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Qi Peng
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- Joint Graduate Program of Peking-Tsinghua-NIBS, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Zheng Huang
- Department of Surgery, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Kaimin Xiao
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
- Joint Graduate Program of Peking-Tsinghua-NIBS, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Xiyue Yao
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Lui Ng
- Department of Surgery, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Jianyang Zeng
- Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Haidong Tang
- State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
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15
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Advani J, Mehta PA, Hamel AR, Mehrotra S, Kiel C, Strunz T, Corso-Díaz X, Kwicklis M, van Asten F, Ratnapriya R, Chew EY, Hernandez DG, Montezuma SR, Ferrington DA, Weber BHF, Segrè AV, Swaroop A. QTL mapping of human retina DNA methylation identifies 87 gene-epigenome interactions in age-related macular degeneration. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1972. [PMID: 38438351 PMCID: PMC10912779 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46063-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 03/06/2024] Open
Abstract
DNA methylation provides a crucial epigenetic mark linking genetic variations to environmental influence. We have analyzed array-based DNA methylation profiles of 160 human retinas with co-measured RNA-seq and >8 million genetic variants, uncovering sites of genetic regulation in cis (37,453 methylation quantitative trait loci and 12,505 expression quantitative trait loci) and 13,747 DNA methylation loci affecting gene expression, with over one-third specific to the retina. Methylation and expression quantitative trait loci show non-random distribution and enrichment of biological processes related to synapse, mitochondria, and catabolism. Summary data-based Mendelian randomization and colocalization analyses identify 87 target genes where methylation and gene-expression changes likely mediate the genotype effect on age-related macular degeneration. Integrated pathway analysis reveals epigenetic regulation of immune response and metabolism including the glutathione pathway and glycolysis. Our study thus defines key roles of genetic variations driving methylation changes, prioritizes epigenetic control of gene expression, and suggests frameworks for regulation of macular degeneration pathology by genotype-environment interaction in retina.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jayshree Advani
- Neurobiology, Neurodegeneration and Repair Laboratory, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Puja A Mehta
- Ocular Genomics Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Andrew R Hamel
- Ocular Genomics Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Sudeep Mehrotra
- Ocular Genomics Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Boston, MA, USA
- Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Christina Kiel
- Institute of Human Genetics, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Tobias Strunz
- Institute of Human Genetics, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Ximena Corso-Díaz
- Neurobiology, Neurodegeneration and Repair Laboratory, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Madeline Kwicklis
- Neurobiology, Neurodegeneration and Repair Laboratory, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Freekje van Asten
- Neurobiology, Neurodegeneration and Repair Laboratory, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Rinki Ratnapriya
- Neurobiology, Neurodegeneration and Repair Laboratory, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Emily Y Chew
- Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications, Clinical Trials Branch, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Dena G Hernandez
- Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute of Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Sandra R Montezuma
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
| | - Deborah A Ferrington
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Doheny Eye Institute, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Bernhard H F Weber
- Institute of Human Genetics, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
- Institute of Clinical Human Genetics, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Ayellet V Segrè
- Ocular Genomics Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Boston, MA, USA.
- Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Anand Swaroop
- Neurobiology, Neurodegeneration and Repair Laboratory, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
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16
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O'Brien CL, Summers KM, Martin NM, Carter-Cusack D, Yang Y, Barua R, Dixit OVA, Hume DA, Pavli P. The relationship between extreme inter-individual variation in macrophage gene expression and genetic susceptibility to inflammatory bowel disease. Hum Genet 2024; 143:233-261. [PMID: 38421405 PMCID: PMC11043138 DOI: 10.1007/s00439-024-02642-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 01/14/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
The differentiation of resident intestinal macrophages from blood monocytes depends upon signals from the macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor (CSF1R). Analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) indicates that dysregulation of macrophage differentiation and response to microorganisms contributes to susceptibility to chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Here, we analyzed transcriptomic variation in monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) from affected and unaffected sib pairs/trios from 22 IBD families and 6 healthy controls. Transcriptional network analysis of the data revealed no overall or inter-sib distinction between affected and unaffected individuals in basal gene expression or the temporal response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). However, the basal or LPS-inducible expression of individual genes varied independently by as much as 100-fold between subjects. Extreme independent variation in the expression of pairs of HLA-associated transcripts (HLA-B/C, HLA-A/F and HLA-DRB1/DRB5) in macrophages was associated with HLA genotype. Correlation analysis indicated the downstream impacts of variation in the immediate early response to LPS. For example, variation in early expression of IL1B was significantly associated with local SNV genotype and with subsequent peak expression of target genes including IL23A, CXCL1, CXCL3, CXCL8 and NLRP3. Similarly, variation in early IFNB1 expression was correlated with subsequent expression of IFN target genes. Our results support the view that gene-specific dysregulation in macrophage adaptation to the intestinal milieu is associated with genetic susceptibility to IBD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire L O'Brien
- Centre for Research in Therapeutics Solutions, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research Group, Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Kim M Summers
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Translational Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Natalia M Martin
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research Group, Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Dylan Carter-Cusack
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Translational Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Yuanhao Yang
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Translational Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Rasel Barua
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research Group, Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Ojas V A Dixit
- Centre for Research in Therapeutics Solutions, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - David A Hume
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Translational Research Institute, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
| | - Paul Pavli
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research Group, Canberra Hospital, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
- School of Medicine and Psychology, College of Health and Medicine, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
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17
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Boltz T, Schwarz T, Bot M, Hou K, Caggiano C, Lapinska S, Duan C, Boks MP, Kahn RS, Zaitlen N, Pasaniuc B, Ophoff R. Cell-type deconvolution of bulk-blood RNA-seq reveals biological insights into neuropsychiatric disorders. Am J Hum Genet 2024; 111:323-337. [PMID: 38306997 PMCID: PMC10870131 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.12.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Revised: 12/12/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 02/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have uncovered susceptibility loci associated with psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder (BP) and schizophrenia (SCZ). However, most of these loci are in non-coding regions of the genome, and the causal mechanisms of the link between genetic variation and disease risk is unknown. Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis of bulk tissue is a common approach used for deciphering underlying mechanisms, although this can obscure cell-type-specific signals and thus mask trait-relevant mechanisms. Although single-cell sequencing can be prohibitively expensive in large cohorts, computationally inferred cell-type proportions and cell-type gene expression estimates have the potential to overcome these problems and advance mechanistic studies. Using bulk RNA-seq from 1,730 samples derived from whole blood in a cohort ascertained from individuals with BP and SCZ, this study estimated cell-type proportions and their relation with disease status and medication. For each cell type, we found between 2,875 and 4,629 eGenes (genes with an associated eQTL), including 1,211 that are not found on the basis of bulk expression alone. We performed a colocalization test between cell-type eQTLs and various traits and identified hundreds of associations that occur between cell-type eQTLs and GWASs but that are not detected in bulk eQTLs. Finally, we investigated the effects of lithium use on the regulation of cell-type expression loci and found examples of genes that are differentially regulated according to lithium use. Our study suggests that applying computational methods to large bulk RNA-seq datasets of non-brain tissue can identify disease-relevant, cell-type-specific biology of psychiatric disorders and psychiatric medication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Toni Boltz
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
| | - Tommer Schwarz
- Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Merel Bot
- Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Kangcheng Hou
- Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Christa Caggiano
- Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Sandra Lapinska
- Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Chenda Duan
- Department of Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Marco P Boks
- Department of Psychiatry, Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, University Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Rene S Kahn
- Department of Psychiatry, Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, University Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, NY, USA
| | - Noah Zaitlen
- Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Neurology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Bogdan Pasaniuc
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Computational Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Roel Ophoff
- Department of Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Bioinformatics Interdepartmental Program, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
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18
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Strober BJ, Tayeb K, Popp J, Qi G, Gordon MG, Perez R, Ye CJ, Battle A. SURGE: uncovering context-specific genetic-regulation of gene expression from single-cell RNA sequencing using latent-factor models. Genome Biol 2024; 25:28. [PMID: 38254214 PMCID: PMC10801966 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-023-03152-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Genetic regulation of gene expression is a complex process, with genetic effects known to vary across cellular contexts such as cell types and environmental conditions. We developed SURGE, a method for unsupervised discovery of context-specific expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) from single-cell transcriptomic data. This allows discovery of the contexts or cell types modulating genetic regulation without prior knowledge. Applied to peripheral blood single-cell eQTL data, SURGE contexts capture continuous representations of distinct cell types and groupings of biologically related cell types. We demonstrate the disease-relevance of SURGE context-specific eQTLs using colocalization analysis and stratified LD-score regression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin J Strober
- Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Karl Tayeb
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | - Joshua Popp
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Guanghao Qi
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - M Grace Gordon
- Biological and Medical Informatics Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Institute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Richard Perez
- Institute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Chun Jimmie Ye
- Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Institute for Human Genetics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Institute for Computational Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
- Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Alexis Battle
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
- Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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19
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Vochteloo M, Deelen P, Vink B, Tsai EA, Runz H, Andreu-Sánchez S, Fu J, Zhernakova A, Westra HJ, Franke L. PICALO: principal interaction component analysis for the identification of discrete technical, cell-type, and environmental factors that mediate eQTLs. Genome Biol 2024; 25:29. [PMID: 38254182 PMCID: PMC10802033 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-023-03151-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) offer insights into the regulatory mechanisms of trait-associated variants, but their effects often rely on contexts that are unknown or unmeasured. We introduce PICALO, a method for hidden variable inference of eQTL contexts. PICALO identifies and disentangles technical from biological context in heterogeneous blood and brain bulk eQTL datasets. These contexts are biologically informative and reproducible, outperforming cell counts or expression-based principal components. Furthermore, we show that RNA quality and cell type proportions interact with thousands of eQTLs. Knowledge of hidden eQTL contexts may aid in the inference of functional mechanisms underlying disease variants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martijn Vochteloo
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Oncode Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Patrick Deelen
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Oncode Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Britt Vink
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Institute for Life Science & Technology, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Ellen A Tsai
- Translational Sciences, Research and Development, Biogen, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Heiko Runz
- Translational Sciences, Research and Development, Biogen, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Sergio Andreu-Sánchez
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Jingyuan Fu
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Pediatrics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Alexandra Zhernakova
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Harm-Jan Westra
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
- Oncode Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Lude Franke
- Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
- Oncode Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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20
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Hekselman I, Vital A, Ziv-Agam M, Kerber L, Yairi I, Yeger-Lotem E. Affected cell types for hundreds of Mendelian diseases revealed by analysis of human and mouse single-cell data. eLife 2024; 13:e84613. [PMID: 38197427 PMCID: PMC10830129 DOI: 10.7554/elife.84613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2022] [Accepted: 12/08/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2024] Open
Abstract
Mendelian diseases tend to manifest clinically in certain tissues, yet their affected cell types typically remain elusive. Single-cell expression studies showed that overexpression of disease-associated genes may point to the affected cell types. Here, we developed a method that infers disease-affected cell types from the preferential expression of disease-associated genes in cell types (PrEDiCT). We applied PrEDiCT to single-cell expression data of six human tissues, to infer the cell types affected in Mendelian diseases. Overall, we inferred the likely affected cell types for 328 diseases. We corroborated our findings by literature text-mining, expert validation, and recapitulation in mouse corresponding tissues. Based on these findings, we explored characteristics of disease-affected cell types, showed that diseases manifesting in multiple tissues tend to affect similar cell types, and highlighted cases where gene functions could be used to refine inference. Together, these findings expand the molecular understanding of disease mechanisms and cellular vulnerability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Idan Hekselman
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBe’er ShevaIsrael
| | - Assaf Vital
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBe’er ShevaIsrael
| | - Maya Ziv-Agam
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBe’er ShevaIsrael
| | - Lior Kerber
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBe’er ShevaIsrael
| | - Ido Yairi
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBe’er ShevaIsrael
| | - Esti Yeger-Lotem
- Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBe’er ShevaIsrael
- The National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the NegevBe’er ShevaIsrael
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21
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Kasela S, Aguet F, Kim-Hellmuth S, Brown BC, Nachun DC, Tracy RP, Durda P, Liu Y, Taylor KD, Johnson WC, Van Den Berg D, Gabriel S, Gupta N, Smith JD, Blackwell TW, Rotter JI, Ardlie KG, Manichaikul A, Rich SS, Barr RG, Lappalainen T. Interaction molecular QTL mapping discovers cellular and environmental modifiers of genetic regulatory effects. Am J Hum Genet 2024; 111:133-149. [PMID: 38181730 PMCID: PMC10806864 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2023.11.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2023] [Revised: 11/29/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 01/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Bulk-tissue molecular quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have been the starting point for interpreting disease-associated variants, and context-specific QTLs show particular relevance for disease. Here, we present the results of mapping interaction QTLs (iQTLs) for cell type, age, and other phenotypic variables in multi-omic, longitudinal data from the blood of individuals of diverse ancestries. By modeling the interaction between genotype and estimated cell-type proportions, we demonstrate that cell-type iQTLs could be considered as proxies for cell-type-specific QTL effects, particularly for the most abundant cell type in the tissue. The interpretation of age iQTLs, however, warrants caution because the moderation effect of age on the genotype and molecular phenotype association could be mediated by changes in cell-type composition. Finally, we show that cell-type iQTLs contribute to cell-type-specific enrichment of diseases that, in combination with additional functional data, could guide future functional studies. Overall, this study highlights the use of iQTLs to gain insights into the context specificity of regulatory effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silva Kasela
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA; Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
| | | | - Sarah Kim-Hellmuth
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, University Hospital LMU Munich, Munich, Germany; Computational Health Center, Institute of Translational Genomics, Helmholtz Munich, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Brielin C Brown
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA; Data Science Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Daniel C Nachun
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Russell P Tracy
- Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Vermont, Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Peter Durda
- Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Vermont, Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Yongmei Liu
- Department of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Kent D Taylor
- The Institute for Translational Genomics and Population Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA
| | - W Craig Johnson
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - David Van Den Berg
- Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | | | - Namrata Gupta
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Joshua D Smith
- Northwest Genomics Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Thomas W Blackwell
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Jerome I Rotter
- The Institute for Translational Genomics and Population Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA
| | | | - Ani Manichaikul
- Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Stephen S Rich
- Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - R Graham Barr
- Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Tuuli Lappalainen
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA; Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Gene Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
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22
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Teng J, Gao Y, Yin H, Bai Z, Liu S, Zeng H, Bai L, Cai Z, Zhao B, Li X, Xu Z, Lin Q, Pan Z, Yang W, Yu X, Guan D, Hou Y, Keel BN, Rohrer GA, Lindholm-Perry AK, Oliver WT, Ballester M, Crespo-Piazuelo D, Quintanilla R, Canela-Xandri O, Rawlik K, Xia C, Yao Y, Zhao Q, Yao W, Yang L, Li H, Zhang H, Liao W, Chen T, Karlskov-Mortensen P, Fredholm M, Amills M, Clop A, Giuffra E, Wu J, Cai X, Diao S, Pan X, Wei C, Li J, Cheng H, Wang S, Su G, Sahana G, Lund MS, Dekkers JCM, Kramer L, Tuggle CK, Corbett R, Groenen MAM, Madsen O, Gòdia M, Rocha D, Charles M, Li CJ, Pausch H, Hu X, Frantz L, Luo Y, Lin L, Zhou Z, Zhang Z, Chen Z, Cui L, Xiang R, Shen X, Li P, Huang R, Tang G, Li M, Zhao Y, Yi G, Tang Z, Jiang J, Zhao F, Yuan X, Liu X, Chen Y, Xu X, Zhao S, Zhao P, Haley C, Zhou H, Wang Q, Pan Y, Ding X, Ma L, Li J, Navarro P, Zhang Q, Li B, Tenesa A, Li K, Liu GE, Zhang Z, Fang L. A compendium of genetic regulatory effects across pig tissues. Nat Genet 2024; 56:112-123. [PMID: 38177344 PMCID: PMC10786720 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01585-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024]
Abstract
The Farm Animal Genotype-Tissue Expression (FarmGTEx) project has been established to develop a public resource of genetic regulatory variants in livestock, which is essential for linking genetic polymorphisms to variation in phenotypes, helping fundamental biological discovery and exploitation in animal breeding and human biomedicine. Here we show results from the pilot phase of PigGTEx by processing 5,457 RNA-sequencing and 1,602 whole-genome sequencing samples passing quality control from pigs. We build a pig genotype imputation panel and associate millions of genetic variants with five types of transcriptomic phenotypes in 34 tissues. We evaluate tissue specificity of regulatory effects and elucidate molecular mechanisms of their action using multi-omics data. Leveraging this resource, we decipher regulatory mechanisms underlying 207 pig complex phenotypes and demonstrate the similarity of pigs to humans in gene expression and the genetic regulation behind complex phenotypes, supporting the importance of pigs as a human biomedical model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinyan Teng
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Yahui Gao
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Beltsville, MD, USA
- Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Hongwei Yin
- Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zhonghao Bai
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Shuli Liu
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Beltsville, MD, USA
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Haonan Zeng
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Lijing Bai
- Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zexi Cai
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Bingru Zhao
- College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
| | - Xiujin Li
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Waterfowl Healthy Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhiting Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Qing Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Zhangyuan Pan
- Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
- Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Wenjing Yang
- College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
- Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Xiaoshan Yu
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Dailu Guan
- Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Yali Hou
- Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, China
| | - Brittney N Keel
- ARS, USDA, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, NE, USA
| | - Gary A Rohrer
- ARS, USDA, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, NE, USA
| | | | - William T Oliver
- ARS, USDA, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, NE, USA
| | - Maria Ballester
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Programme, Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Daniel Crespo-Piazuelo
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Programme, Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Raquel Quintanilla
- Animal Breeding and Genetics Programme, Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Torre Marimon, Caldes de Montbui, Spain
| | - Oriol Canela-Xandri
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Konrad Rawlik
- Baillie Gifford Pandemic Science Hub, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Charley Xia
- Lothian Birth Cohort studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Yuelin Yao
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Qianyi Zhao
- Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Wenye Yao
- Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
- Animal Breeding and Genomics, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Liu Yang
- Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Houcheng Li
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Huicong Zhang
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Wang Liao
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Tianshuo Chen
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Peter Karlskov-Mortensen
- Animal Genetics, Bioinformatics and Breeding, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Merete Fredholm
- Animal Genetics, Bioinformatics and Breeding, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Marcel Amills
- Department of Animal Genetics, Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
- Departament de Ciència Animal i dels Aliments, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Alex Clop
- Department of Animal Genetics, Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Elisabetta Giuffra
- Paris-Saclay University, INRAE, AgroParisTech, GABI, Jouy-en-Josas, France
| | - Jun Wu
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaodian Cai
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Shuqi Diao
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiangchun Pan
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Chen Wei
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Jinghui Li
- Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Hao Cheng
- Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Sheng Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
| | - Guosheng Su
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Goutam Sahana
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Mogens Sandø Lund
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Jack C M Dekkers
- Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Luke Kramer
- Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | | | - Ryan Corbett
- Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA
| | - Martien A M Groenen
- Animal Breeding and Genomics, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Ole Madsen
- Animal Breeding and Genomics, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Marta Gòdia
- Animal Breeding and Genomics, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands
- Department of Animal Genetics, Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
| | - Dominique Rocha
- Paris-Saclay University, INRAE, AgroParisTech, GABI, Jouy-en-Josas, France
| | - Mathieu Charles
- Paris-Saclay University, INRAE, AgroParisTech, GABI, SIGENAE, Jouy-en-Josas, France
| | - Cong-Jun Li
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Beltsville, MD, USA
| | - Hubert Pausch
- Animal Genomics, ETH Zurich, Universitaetstrasse 2, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Xiaoxiang Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, College of Biological Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
| | - Laurent Frantz
- Palaeogenomics Group, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany
- School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Yonglun Luo
- Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
- Lars Bolund Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Qingdao-Europe Advanced Institute for Life Sciences, BGI-Research, Qingdao, China
| | - Lin Lin
- Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Zhongyin Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
| | - Zhe Zhang
- Department of Animal Science, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Zitao Chen
- Department of Animal Science, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Leilei Cui
- School of Life Sciences, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
- Human Aging Research Institute and School of Life Science, Nanchang University, and Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Human Aging, Jiangxi, China
- UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London, UK
| | - Ruidong Xiang
- Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
- Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio, Centre for AgriBiosciences, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
| | - Xia Shen
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
- Center for Intelligent Medicine Research, Greater Bay Area Institute of Precision Medicine, Fudan University, Guangzhou, China
- Centre for Global Health Research, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Pinghua Li
- Institute of Swine Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
| | - Ruihua Huang
- Institute of Swine Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
| | - Guoqing Tang
- Farm Animal Genetic Resources Exploration and Innovation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
| | - Mingzhou Li
- Farm Animal Genetic Resources Exploration and Innovation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
| | - Yunxiang Zhao
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning, China
| | - Guoqiang Yi
- Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zhonglin Tang
- Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jicai Jiang
- Department of Animal Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
| | - Fuping Zhao
- Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaolong Yuan
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Xiaohong Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yaosheng Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xuewen Xu
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education and College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
| | - Shuhong Zhao
- Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education and College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
| | - Pengju Zhao
- Hainan Institute, Zhejiang University, Yongyou Industry Park, Yazhou Bay Sci-Tech City, Sanya, China
| | - Chris Haley
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- The Roslin Institute, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK
| | - Huaijun Zhou
- Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Qishan Wang
- Department of Animal Science, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yuchun Pan
- Department of Animal Science, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xiangdong Ding
- College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
| | - Li Ma
- Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Jiaqi Li
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China
| | - Pau Navarro
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- The Roslin Institute, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK
| | - Qin Zhang
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, China
| | - Bingjie Li
- Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Roslin Institute Building, Midlothian, UK
| | - Albert Tenesa
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
- The Roslin Institute, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, The University of Edinburgh, Midlothian, UK.
| | - Kui Li
- Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Multi-Omics of MARA, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen, China.
| | - George E Liu
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Beltsville, MD, USA.
| | - Zhe Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Swine and Poultry Breeding Industry, National Engineering Research Center for Breeding Swine Industry, Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Agro-Animal Genomics and Molecular Breeding, College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University (SCAU), Guangzhou, China.
| | - Lingzhao Fang
- Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
- MRC Human Genetics Unit at the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
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23
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Martorella M, Kasela S, Garcia-Flores R, Gokden A, Castel SE, Lappalainen T. Evaluation of noninvasive biospecimens for transcriptome studies. BMC Genomics 2023; 24:790. [PMID: 38114913 PMCID: PMC10729488 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-023-09875-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2023] [Accepted: 12/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Transcriptome studies disentangle functional mechanisms of gene expression regulation and may elucidate the underlying biology of disease processes. However, the types of tissues currently collected typically assay a single post-mortem timepoint or are limited to investigating cell types found in blood. Noninvasive tissues may improve disease-relevant discovery by enabling more complex longitudinal study designs, by capturing different and potentially more applicable cell types, and by increasing sample sizes due to reduced collection costs and possible higher enrollment from vulnerable populations. Here, we develop methods for sampling noninvasive biospecimens, investigate their performance across commercial and in-house library preparations, characterize their biology, and assess the feasibility of using noninvasive tissues in a multitude of transcriptomic applications. We collected buccal swabs, hair follicles, saliva, and urine cell pellets from 19 individuals over three to four timepoints, for a total of 300 unique biological samples, which we then prepared with replicates across three library preparations, for a final tally of 472 transcriptomes. Of the four tissues we studied, we found hair follicles and urine cell pellets to be most promising due to the consistency of sample quality, the cell types and expression profiles we observed, and their performance in disease-relevant applications. This is the first study to thoroughly delineate biological and technical features of noninvasive samples and demonstrate their use in a wide array of transcriptomic and clinical analyses. We anticipate future use of these biospecimens will facilitate discovery and development of clinical applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Molly Martorella
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA.
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Silva Kasela
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Renee Garcia-Flores
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- Undergraduate Program On Genomic Sciences, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico
| | | | - Stephane E Castel
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA.
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Tuuli Lappalainen
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA.
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Gene Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
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24
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Zhang J, Zhao H. eQTL studies: from bulk tissues to single cells. J Genet Genomics 2023; 50:925-933. [PMID: 37207929 PMCID: PMC10656365 DOI: 10.1016/j.jgg.2023.05.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 05/02/2023] [Accepted: 05/04/2023] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
An expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) is a chromosomal region where genetic variants are associated with the expression levels of specific genes that can be both nearby or distant. The identifications of eQTLs for different tissues, cell types, and contexts have led to a better understanding of the dynamic regulations of gene expressions and implications of functional genes and variants for complex traits and diseases. Although most eQTL studies have been performed on data collected from bulk tissues, recent studies have demonstrated the importance of cell-type-specific and context-dependent gene regulations in biological processes and disease mechanisms. In this review, we discuss statistical methods that have been developed to enable the detection of cell-type-specific and context-dependent eQTLs from bulk tissues, purified cell types, and single cells. We also discuss the limitations of the current methods and future research opportunities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jingfei Zhang
- Information Systems and Operations Management, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
| | - Hongyu Zhao
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 208034, USA.
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25
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Wang J, Cheng X, Liang Q, Owen LA, Lu J, Zheng Y, Wang M, Chen S, DeAngelis MM, Li Y, Chen R. Single-cell multiomics of the human retina reveals hierarchical transcription factor collaboration in mediating cell type-specific effects of genetic variants on gene regulation. Genome Biol 2023; 24:269. [PMID: 38012720 PMCID: PMC10680294 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-023-03111-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2022] [Accepted: 11/15/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Systematic characterization of how genetic variation modulates gene regulation in a cell type-specific context is essential for understanding complex traits. To address this question, we profile gene expression and chromatin accessibility in cells from healthy retinae of 20 human donors through single-cell multiomics and genomic sequencing. RESULTS We map eQTL, caQTL, allelic-specific expression, and allelic-specific chromatin accessibility in major retinal cell types. By integrating these results, we identify and characterize regulatory elements and genetic variants effective on gene regulation in individual cell types. The majority of identified sc-eQTLs and sc-caQTLs display cell type-specific effects, while the cis-elements containing genetic variants with cell type-specific effects are often accessible in multiple cell types. Furthermore, the transcription factors whose binding sites are perturbed by genetic variants tend to have higher expression levels in the cell types where the variants exert their effects, compared to the cell types where the variants have no impact. We further validate our findings with high-throughput reporter assays. Lastly, we identify the enriched cell types, candidate causal variants and genes, and cell type-specific regulatory mechanism underlying GWAS loci. CONCLUSIONS Overall, genetic effects on gene regulation are highly context dependent. Our results suggest that cell type-dependent genetic effect is driven by precise modulation of both trans-factor expression and chromatin accessibility of cis-elements. Our findings indicate hierarchical collaboration among transcription factors plays a crucial role in mediating cell type-specific effects of genetic variants on gene regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jun Wang
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Xuesen Cheng
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Qingnan Liang
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Leah A Owen
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Jiaxiong Lu
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Yiqiao Zheng
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA
| | - Meng Wang
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Shiming Chen
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University in St Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA
- Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University in St Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA
| | - Margaret M DeAngelis
- Department of Ophthalmology, University at Buffalo the State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA
| | - Yumei Li
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
| | - Rui Chen
- Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
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26
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Minow MAA, Marand AP, Schmitz RJ. Leveraging Single-Cell Populations to Uncover the Genetic Basis of Complex Traits. Annu Rev Genet 2023; 57:297-319. [PMID: 37562412 PMCID: PMC10775913 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-genet-022123-110824] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/12/2023]
Abstract
The ease and throughput of single-cell genomics have steadily improved, and its current trajectory suggests that surveying single-cell populations will become routine. We discuss the merger of quantitative genetics with single-cell genomics and emphasize how this synergizes with advantages intrinsic to plants. Single-cell population genomics provides increased detection resolution when mapping variants that control molecular traits, including gene expression or chromatin accessibility. Additionally, single-cell population genomics reveals the cell types in which variants act and, when combined with organism-level phenotype measurements, unveils which cellular contexts impact higher-order traits. Emerging technologies, notably multiomics, can facilitate the measurement of both genetic changes and genomic traits in single cells, enabling single-cell genetic experiments. The implementation of single-cell genetics will advance the investigation of the genetic architecture of complex molecular traits and provide new experimental paradigms to study eukaryotic genetics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mark A A Minow
- Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA;
| | | | - Robert J Schmitz
- Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA;
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27
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Renganaath K, Albert FW. Trans -eQTL hotspots shape complex traits by modulating cellular states. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.11.14.567054. [PMID: 38014174 PMCID: PMC10680915 DOI: 10.1101/2023.11.14.567054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Regulatory genetic variation shapes gene expression, providing an important mechanism connecting DNA variation and complex traits. The causal relationships between gene expression and complex traits remain poorly understood. Here, we integrated transcriptomes and 46 genetically complex growth traits in a large cross between two strains of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae . We discovered thousands of genetic correlations between gene expression and growth, suggesting functional connections. Local regulatory variation was a minor source of these genetic correlations. Instead, genetic correlations tended to arise from multiple independent trans -acting regulatory loci. Trans -acting hotspots that affect the expression of numerous genes accounted for particularly large fractions of genetic growth variation and of genetic correlations between gene expression and growth. Genes with genetic correlations were enriched for similar biological processes across traits, but with heterogeneous direction of effect. Our results reveal how trans -acting regulatory hotspots shape complex traits by altering cellular states.
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28
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Allayee H, Farber CR, Seldin MM, Williams EG, James DE, Lusis AJ. Systems genetics approaches for understanding complex traits with relevance for human disease. eLife 2023; 12:e91004. [PMID: 37962168 PMCID: PMC10645424 DOI: 10.7554/elife.91004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 11/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Quantitative traits are often complex because of the contribution of many loci, with further complexity added by environmental factors. In medical research, systems genetics is a powerful approach for the study of complex traits, as it integrates intermediate phenotypes, such as RNA, protein, and metabolite levels, to understand molecular and physiological phenotypes linking discrete DNA sequence variation to complex clinical and physiological traits. The primary purpose of this review is to describe some of the resources and tools of systems genetics in humans and rodent models, so that researchers in many areas of biology and medicine can make use of the data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hooman Allayee
- Departments of Population & Public Health Sciences, University of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesUnited States
- Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesUnited States
| | - Charles R Farber
- Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia School of MedicineCharlottesvilleUnited States
- Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics, University of Virginia School of MedicineCharlottesvilleUnited States
- Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia School of MedicineCharlottesvilleUnited States
| | - Marcus M Seldin
- Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California, IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Evan Graehl Williams
- Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of LuxembourgLuxembourgLuxembourg
| | - David E James
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of SydneyCamperdownAustralia
- Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of SydneyCamperdownAustralia
- Charles Perkins Centre, University of SydneyCamperdownAustralia
| | - Aldons J Lusis
- Departments of Human Genetics, University of California, Los AngelesLos AngelesUnited States
- Medicine, University of California, Los AngelesLos AngelesUnited States
- Microbiology, Immunology, & Molecular Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine of UCLALos AngelesUnited States
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29
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Itoh N, Itoh Y, Stiles L, Voskuhl R. Sex differences in the neuronal transcriptome and synaptic mitochondrial function in the cerebral cortex of a multiple sclerosis model. Front Neurol 2023; 14:1268411. [PMID: 38020654 PMCID: PMC10654219 DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1268411] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects the cerebral cortex, inducing cortical atrophy and neuronal and synaptic pathology. Despite the fact that women are more susceptible to getting MS, men with MS have worse disability progression. Here, sex differences in neurodegenerative mechanisms are determined in the cerebral cortex using the MS model, chronic experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Methods Neurons from cerebral cortex tissues of chronic EAE, as well as age-matched healthy control, male and female mice underwent RNA sequencing and gene expression analyses using RiboTag technology. The morphology of mitochondria in neurons of cerebral cortex was assessed using Thy1-CFP-MitoS mice. Oxygen consumption rates were determined using mitochondrial respirometry assays from intact as well as permeabilized synaptosomes. Results RNA sequencing of neurons in cerebral cortex during chronic EAE in C57BL/6 mice showed robust differential gene expression in male EAE compared to male healthy controls. In contrast, there were few differences in female EAE compared to female healthy controls. The most enriched differential gene expression pathways in male mice during EAE were mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative phosphorylation. Mitochondrial morphology in neurons showed significant abnormalities in the cerebral cortex of EAE males, but not EAE females. Regarding function, synaptosomes isolated from cerebral cortex of male, but not female, EAE mice demonstrated significantly decreased oxygen consumption rates during respirometry assays. Discussion Cortical neuronal transcriptomics, mitochondrial morphology, and functional respirometry assays in synaptosomes revealed worse neurodegeneration in male EAE mice. This is consistent with worse neurodegeneration in MS men and reveals a model and a target to develop treatments to prevent cortical neurodegeneration and mitigate disability progression in MS men.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noriko Itoh
- Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Yuichiro Itoh
- Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Linsey Stiles
- Department of Endocrinology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
| | - Rhonda Voskuhl
- Department of Neurology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
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30
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Chatterjee S, Fries LE, Yaacov O, Hu N, Berk-Rauch HE, Chakravarti A. RET enhancer haplotype-dependent remodeling of the human fetal gut development program. PLoS Genet 2023; 19:e1011030. [PMID: 37948459 PMCID: PMC10664930 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2023] [Revised: 11/22/2023] [Accepted: 10/24/2023] [Indexed: 11/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) is associated with deficiency of the receptor tyrosine kinase RET, resulting in loss of cells of the enteric nervous system (ENS) during fetal gut development. The major contribution to HSCR risk is from common sequence variants in RET enhancers with additional risk from rare coding variants in many genes. Here, we demonstrate that these RET enhancer variants specifically alter the human fetal gut development program through significant decreases in gene expression of RET, members of the RET-EDNRB gene regulatory network (GRN), other HSCR genes, with an altered transcriptome of 2,382 differentially expressed genes across diverse neuronal and mesenchymal functions. A parsimonious hypothesis for these results is that beyond RET's direct effect on its GRN, it also has a major role in enteric neural crest-derived cell (ENCDC) precursor proliferation, its deficiency reducing ENCDCs with relative expansion of non-ENCDC cells. Thus, genes reducing RET proliferative activity can potentially cause HSCR. One such class is the 23 RET-dependent transcription factors enriched in early gut development. We show that their knockdown in human neuroblastoma SK-N-SH cells reduces RET and/or EDNRB gene expression, expanding the RET-EDNRB GRN. The human embryos we studied had major remodeling of the gut transcriptome but were unlikely to have had HSCR: thus, genetic or epigenetic changes in addition to those in RET are required for aganglionosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sumantra Chatterjee
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, United States of America
- Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, United States of America
| | - Lauren E. Fries
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, United States of America
| | - Or Yaacov
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, United States of America
| | - Nan Hu
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, United States of America
| | - Hanna E. Berk-Rauch
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, United States of America
| | - Aravinda Chakravarti
- Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, United States of America
- Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, United States of America
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31
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Mostafavi H, Spence JP, Naqvi S, Pritchard JK. Systematic differences in discovery of genetic effects on gene expression and complex traits. Nat Genet 2023; 55:1866-1875. [PMID: 37857933 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01529-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 15.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2022] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 10/21/2023]
Abstract
Most signals in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of complex traits implicate noncoding genetic variants with putative gene regulatory effects. However, currently identified regulatory variants, notably expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), explain only a small fraction of GWAS signals. Here, we show that GWAS and cis-eQTL hits are systematically different: eQTLs cluster strongly near transcription start sites, whereas GWAS hits do not. Genes near GWAS hits are enriched in key functional annotations, are under strong selective constraint and have complex regulatory landscapes across different tissue/cell types, whereas genes near eQTLs are depleted of most functional annotations, show relaxed constraint, and have simpler regulatory landscapes. We describe a model to understand these observations, including how natural selection on complex traits hinders discovery of functionally relevant eQTLs. Our results imply that GWAS and eQTL studies are systematically biased toward different types of variant, and support the use of complementary functional approaches alongside the next generation of eQTL studies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Sahin Naqvi
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
- Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Jonathan K Pritchard
- Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
- Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
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32
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Nguyen JP, Arthur TD, Fujita K, Salgado BM, Donovan MKR, Matsui H, Kim JH, D'Antonio-Chronowska A, D'Antonio M, Frazer KA. eQTL mapping in fetal-like pancreatic progenitor cells reveals early developmental insights into diabetes risk. Nat Commun 2023; 14:6928. [PMID: 37903777 PMCID: PMC10616100 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42560-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2023] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 11/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The impact of genetic regulatory variation active in early pancreatic development on adult pancreatic disease and traits is not well understood. Here, we generate a panel of 107 fetal-like iPSC-derived pancreatic progenitor cells (iPSC-PPCs) from whole genome-sequenced individuals and identify 4065 genes and 4016 isoforms whose expression and/or alternative splicing are affected by regulatory variation. We integrate eQTLs identified in adult islets and whole pancreas samples, which reveal 1805 eQTL associations that are unique to the fetal-like iPSC-PPCs and 1043 eQTLs that exhibit regulatory plasticity across the fetal-like and adult pancreas tissues. Colocalization with GWAS risk loci for pancreatic diseases and traits show that some putative causal regulatory variants are active only in the fetal-like iPSC-PPCs and likely influence disease by modulating expression of disease-associated genes in early development, while others with regulatory plasticity likely exert their effects in both the fetal and adult pancreas by modulating expression of different disease genes in the two developmental stages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer P Nguyen
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Timothy D Arthur
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Kyohei Fujita
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Bianca M Salgado
- Institute of Genomic Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Margaret K R Donovan
- Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Hiroko Matsui
- Institute of Genomic Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Ji Hyun Kim
- Department of Pediatrics, Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, South Korea
| | | | - Matteo D'Antonio
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
- Institute of Genomic Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA
| | - Kelly A Frazer
- Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
- Institute of Genomic Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
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Luo H, Zhang P, Zhang W, Zheng Y, Hao D, Shi Y, Niu Y, Song T, Li Y, Zhao S, Chen H, Xu T, He S. Recent positive selection signatures reveal phenotypic evolution in the Han Chinese population. Sci Bull (Beijing) 2023; 68:2391-2404. [PMID: 37661541 DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2023.08.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2023] [Revised: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 08/10/2023] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Characterizing natural selection signatures and relationships with phenotype spectra is important for understanding human evolution and both biological and pathological mechanisms. Here, we identified 24 genetic loci under recent selection by analyzing rare singletons in 3946 high-depth whole-genome sequencing data of Han Chinese. The loci include immune-related gene regions (MHC cluster, IGH cluster, STING1, and PSG), alcohol metabolism-related gene regions (ADH1B, ALDH2, and ALDH3B2), and the olfactory perception gene OR4C16, in which the MHC cluster, ADH1B, and ALDH2 were also identified by TOPMed and WestLake Biobank. Among the signals, the IGH cluster is particularly interesting, in which the favored allele of variant 14_105737776_C_T (rs117518546, IgG1-G396R) promotes immune response, but also increases the risk of an autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It is also surprising that our newly discovered ALDH3B2 evolved in the opposite direction to ALDH2 for alcohol metabolism. Besides monogenic traits, we found that multiple complex traits experienced polygenic adaptation. Particularly, multi-methods consistently revealed that lower blood pressure was favored in natural selection. Finally, we built a database named RePoS (recent positive selection, http://bigdata.ibp.ac.cn/RePoS/) to integrate and display multi-population selection signals. Our study extended our understanding of natural evolution and phenotype adaptation in Han Chinese as well as other populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Huaxia Luo
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Pediatrics, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing 100034, China
| | - Peng Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Wanyu Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Yu Zheng
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Di Hao
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Yirong Shi
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Yiwei Niu
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Tingrui Song
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Yanyan Li
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Shilei Zhao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Hua Chen
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing 100101, China.
| | - Tao Xu
- National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, CAS Center for Excellence in Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Taian 271016, China.
| | - Shunmin He
- Key Laboratory of Epigenetic Regulation and Intervention, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
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34
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Lin C, Liu W, Jiang W, Zhao H. Robustness of quantifying mediating effects of genetically regulated expression on complex traits with mediated expression score regression. Biol Methods Protoc 2023; 8:bpad024. [PMID: 37901453 PMCID: PMC10599978 DOI: 10.1093/biomethods/bpad024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2023] [Revised: 10/08/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 10/31/2023] Open
Abstract
Genetic association signals have been mostly found in noncoding regions through genome-wide association studies (GWAS), suggesting the roles of gene expression regulation in human diseases and traits. However, there has been limited success in colocalizing expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) with disease-associated variants. Mediated expression score regression (MESC) is a recently proposed method to quantify the proportion of trait heritability mediated by genetically regulated gene expressions (GReX). Applications of MESC to GWAS results have yielded low estimation of mediated heritability for many traits. As MESC relies on stringent independence assumptions between cis-eQTL effects, gene effects, and nonmediated SNP effects, it may fail to characterize the true relationships between those effect sizes, which leads to biased results. Here, we consider the robustness of MESC to investigate whether the low fraction of mediated heritability inferred by MESC reflects biological reality for complex traits or is an underestimation caused by model misspecifications. Our results suggest that MESC may lead to biased estimates of mediated heritability with misspecification of gene annotations leading to underestimation, whereas misspecification of SNP annotations may lead to overestimation. Furthermore, errors in eQTL effect estimates may lead to underestimation of mediated heritability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chen Lin
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, United States
| | - Wei Liu
- Program of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, United States
| | - Wei Jiang
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, United States
| | - Hongyu Zhao
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, United States
- Program of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06510, United States
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35
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Fair B, Najar CBA, Zhao J, Lozano S, Reilly A, Mossian G, Staley JP, Wang J, Li YI. Global impact of aberrant splicing on human gene expression levels. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.09.13.557588. [PMID: 37745605 PMCID: PMC10515962 DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.13.557588] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
Alternative splicing (AS) is pervasive in human genes, yet the specific function of most AS events remains unknown. It is widely assumed that the primary function of AS is to diversify the proteome, however AS can also influence gene expression levels by producing transcripts rapidly degraded by nonsense-mediated decay (NMD). Currently, there are no precise estimates for how often the coupling of AS and NMD (AS-NMD) impacts gene expression levels because rapidly degraded NMD transcripts are challenging to capture. To better understand the impact of AS on gene expression levels, we analyzed population-scale genomic data in lymphoblastoid cell lines across eight molecular assays that capture gene regulation before, during, and after transcription and cytoplasmic decay. Sequencing nascent mRNA transcripts revealed frequent aberrant splicing of human introns, which results in remarkably high levels of mRNA transcripts subject to NMD. We estimate that ~15% of all protein-coding transcripts are degraded by NMD, and this estimate increases to nearly half of all transcripts for lowly-expressed genes with many introns. Leveraging genetic variation across cell lines, we find that GWAS trait-associated loci explained by AS are similarly likely to associate with NMD-induced expression level differences as with differences in protein isoform usage. Additionally, we used the splice-switching drug risdiplam to perturb AS at hundreds of genes, finding that ~3/4 of the splicing perturbations induce NMD. Thus, we conclude that AS-NMD substantially impacts the expression levels of most human genes. Our work further suggests that much of the molecular impact of AS is mediated by changes in protein expression levels rather than diversification of the proteome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Fair
- Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Carlos Buen Abad Najar
- Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Junxing Zhao
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66047, USA
| | - Stephanie Lozano
- Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Present address: Center for Neuroscience, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95618, USA
| | - Austin Reilly
- Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Gabriela Mossian
- Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Jonathan P Staley
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
| | - Jingxin Wang
- Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66047, USA
| | - Yang I Li
- Section of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
- Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
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36
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Johansen N, Somasundaram S, Travaglini KJ, Yanny AM, Shumyatcher M, Casper T, Cobbs C, Dee N, Ellenbogen R, Ferreira M, Goldy J, Guzman J, Gwinn R, Hirschstein D, Jorstad NL, Keene CD, Ko A, Levi BP, Ojemann JG, Pham T, Shapovalova N, Silbergeld D, Sulc J, Torkelson A, Tung H, Smith K, Lein ES, Bakken TE, Hodge RD, Miller JA. Interindividual variation in human cortical cell type abundance and expression. Science 2023; 382:eadf2359. [PMID: 37824649 DOI: 10.1126/science.adf2359] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2022] [Accepted: 07/30/2023] [Indexed: 10/14/2023]
Abstract
Single-cell transcriptomic studies have identified a conserved set of neocortical cell types from small postmortem cohorts. We extended these efforts by assessing cell type variation across 75 adult individuals undergoing epilepsy and tumor surgeries. Nearly all nuclei map to one of 125 robust cell types identified in the middle temporal gyrus. However, we found interindividual variance in abundances and gene expression signatures, particularly in deep-layer glutamatergic neurons and microglia. A minority of donor variance is explainable by age, sex, ancestry, disease state, and cell state. Genomic variation was associated with expression of 150 to 250 genes for most cell types. This characterization of cellular variation provides a baseline for cell typing in health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | | | - Tamara Casper
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Charles Cobbs
- Swedish Neuroscience Institute, Seattle,WA 98122, USA
| | - Nick Dee
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Richard Ellenbogen
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98104, USA
| | - Manuel Ferreira
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98104, USA
| | - Jeff Goldy
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Junitta Guzman
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Ryder Gwinn
- Swedish Neuroscience Institute, Seattle,WA 98122, USA
| | | | | | - C Dirk Keene
- Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98104, USA
| | - Andrew Ko
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98104, USA
| | - Boaz P Levi
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Jeffrey G Ojemann
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98104, USA
| | - Thanh Pham
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | | | - Daniel Silbergeld
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98104, USA
| | - Josef Sulc
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Amy Torkelson
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Herman Tung
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Kimberly Smith
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
| | - Ed S Lein
- Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA 98109, USA
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Mai J, Lu M, Gao Q, Zeng J, Xiao J. Transcriptome-wide association studies: recent advances in methods, applications and available databases. Commun Biol 2023; 6:899. [PMID: 37658226 PMCID: PMC10474133 DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-05279-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/24/2023] [Indexed: 09/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide association study has identified fruitful variants impacting heritable traits. Nevertheless, identifying critical genes underlying those significant variants has been a great task. Transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) is an instrumental post-analysis to detect significant gene-trait associations focusing on modeling transcription-level regulations, which has made numerous progresses in recent years. Leveraging from expression quantitative loci (eQTL) regulation information, TWAS has advantages in detecting functioning genes regulated by disease-associated variants, thus providing insight into mechanisms of diseases and other phenotypes. Considering its vast potential, this review article comprehensively summarizes TWAS, including the methodology, applications and available resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jialin Mai
- National Genomics Data Center, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Mingming Lu
- National Genomics Data Center, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Qianwen Gao
- National Genomics Data Center, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Jingyao Zeng
- National Genomics Data Center, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China.
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China.
| | - Jingfa Xiao
- National Genomics Data Center, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China.
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
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38
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Aygün N, Krupa O, Mory J, Le B, Valone J, Liang D, Love MI, Stein JL. Genetics of cell-type-specific post-transcriptional gene regulation during human neurogenesis. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.08.30.555019. [PMID: 37693528 PMCID: PMC10491258 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.30.555019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
The function of some genetic variants associated with brain-relevant traits has been explained through colocalization with expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) conducted in bulk post-mortem adult brain tissue. However, many brain-trait associated loci have unknown cellular or molecular function. These genetic variants may exert context-specific function on different molecular phenotypes including post-transcriptional changes. Here, we identified genetic regulation of RNA-editing and alternative polyadenylation (APA), within a cell-type-specific population of human neural progenitors and neurons. More RNA-editing and isoforms utilizing longer polyadenylation sequences were observed in neurons, likely due to higher expression of genes encoding the proteins mediating these post-transcriptional events. We also detected hundreds of cell-type-specific editing quantitative trait loci (edQTLs) and alternative polyadenylation QTLs (apaQTLs). We found colocalizations of a neuron edQTL in CCDC88A with educational attainment and a progenitor apaQTL in EP300 with schizophrenia, suggesting genetically mediated post-transcriptional regulation during brain development lead to differences in brain function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nil Aygün
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Oleh Krupa
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Jessica Mory
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Brandon Le
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Jordan Valone
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Dan Liang
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Michael I. Love
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
| | - Jason L. Stein
- Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- UNC Neuroscience Center University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
- Lead contact
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Parisien M, Buxbaum C, Granovsky Y, Yarnitsky D, Diatchenko L. Prospective Blood Transcriptomics Study in a Motor Vehicle Collision Cohort Identified a Protective Function of the SAMD15 Gene Against Chronic Pain. THE JOURNAL OF PAIN 2023; 24:1604-1616. [PMID: 37116672 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2023.04.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2022] [Revised: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 04/20/2023] [Indexed: 04/30/2023]
Abstract
Traumatic brain injuries following motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) are ubiquitous. Surprisingly, there are no correlates between concussion impact force and long-term pain outcomes. To study the molecular underpinnings of chronic pain after MVC, we assembled a prospective cohort of 36 subjects that experienced MVC and suffered documented mild traumatic brain injuries. For each participant, a first blood sample was drawn within 72 hours of the collision, then a second one at the 6-month mark. Pain was also assessed at the second blood draw to determine if pain became chronic or resolved. Blood samples enabled transcriptomics analyses for immune cells. At the transcriptome-wide level, we found that Sterile Alpha Motif Domain Containing 15 (SAMD15) mRNA was significantly upregulated with time in subjects who resolved their pain whereas unregulated in those with persistent pain. Using several large publicly available datasets, such as the UK Biobank and the GTeX portal, we then linked elevated SAMD15 gene expression, elevated neutrophils cell counts, and decreased risk for chronic pain to increased dosage of the T allele at SNP rs4903580, situated within SAMD15's gene locus. The causality between the components of our model was established and supported by Mendelian randomization. Overall, our results support the role of SAMD15 as a potential gene effector for neutrophil-dependent chronic pain development. PERSPECTIVE: This article highlights the potential protective role of the SAMD15 gene against chronic pain following a mild traumatic brain injury. The expression of the gene is associated with a SNP rs4903580, which is itself associated with neutrophils counts as well as chronic pain in large genetic studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Parisien
- Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, Department of Anesthesia, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - Chen Buxbaum
- Department of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, and Clinical Neurophysiology Lab, Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel
| | - Yelena Granovsky
- Department of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, and Clinical Neurophysiology Lab, Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel
| | - David Yarnitsky
- Department of Neurology, Rambam Health Care Campus, and Clinical Neurophysiology Lab, Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel
| | - Luda Diatchenko
- Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, Department of Anesthesia, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
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40
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Xu C, Song LY, Zhou Y, Ma DN, Ding QS, Guo ZJ, Li J, Song SW, Zhang LD, Zheng HL. Integration of eQTL and GWAS analysis uncovers a genetic regulation of natural ionomic variation in Arabidopsis. PLANT CELL REPORTS 2023; 42:1473-1485. [PMID: 37516984 DOI: 10.1007/s00299-023-03042-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2022] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 08/01/2023]
Abstract
KEY MESSAGE This study provided important insights into the genetic architecture of variations in A. thaliana leaf ionome in a cell-type-specific manner. The functional interpretation of traits associated variants by expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis is usually performed in bulk tissue samples. While the regulation of gene expression is context-dependent, such as cell-type-specific manner. In this study, we estimated cell-type abundances from 728 bulk tissue samples using single-cell RNA-sequencing dataset, and performed cis-eQTL mapping to identify cell-type-interaction eQTL (cis-eQTLs(ci)) in A. thaliana. Also, we performed Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analyses for 999 accessions to identify the genetic basis of variations in A. thaliana leaf ionome. As a result, a total of 5,664 unique eQTL genes and 15,038 unique cis-eQTLs(ci) were significant. The majority (62.83%) of cis-eQTLs(ci) were cell-type-specific eQTLs. Using colocalization, we uncovered one interested gene AT2G25590 in Phloem cell, encoding a kind of plant Tudor-like protein with possible chromatin-associated functions, which colocalized with the most significant cis-eQTL(ci) of a Mo-related locus (Chr2:10,908,806:A:C; P = 3.27 × 10-27). Furthermore, we prioritized eight target genes associated with AT2G25590, which were previously reported in regulating the concentration of Mo element in A. thaliana. This study revealed the genetic regulation of ionomic variations and provided a foundation for further studies on molecular mechanisms of genetic variants controlling the A. thaliana ionome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chaoqun Xu
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361104, China
| | - Ling-Yu Song
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361104, China
| | - Ying Zhou
- School of Medicine, National Institute for Data Science in Health and Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China
| | - Dong-Na Ma
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361104, China
- National Engineering Research Center of Cereal Fermentation and Food Biomanufacturing, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China
| | - Qian-Su Ding
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361104, China
| | - Ze-Jun Guo
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361104, China
| | - Jing Li
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361104, China
| | - Shi-Wei Song
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361104, China
| | - Lu-Dan Zhang
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361104, China
| | - Hai-Lei Zheng
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361104, China.
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41
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Carrillo-Perez F, Pizurica M, Ozawa MG, Vogel H, West RB, Kong CS, Herrera LJ, Shen J, Gevaert O. Synthetic whole-slide image tile generation with gene expression profile-infused deep generative models. CELL REPORTS METHODS 2023; 3:100534. [PMID: 37671024 PMCID: PMC10475789 DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2023.100534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2022] [Revised: 03/10/2023] [Accepted: 06/22/2023] [Indexed: 09/07/2023]
Abstract
In this work, we propose an approach to generate whole-slide image (WSI) tiles by using deep generative models infused with matched gene expression profiles. First, we train a variational autoencoder (VAE) that learns a latent, lower-dimensional representation of multi-tissue gene expression profiles. Then, we use this representation to infuse generative adversarial networks (GANs) that generate lung and brain cortex tissue tiles, resulting in a new model that we call RNA-GAN. Tiles generated by RNA-GAN were preferred by expert pathologists compared with tiles generated using traditional GANs, and in addition, RNA-GAN needs fewer training epochs to generate high-quality tiles. Finally, RNA-GAN was able to generalize to gene expression profiles outside of the training set, showing imputation capabilities. A web-based quiz is available for users to play a game distinguishing real and synthetic tiles: https://rna-gan.stanford.edu/, and the code for RNA-GAN is available here: https://github.com/gevaertlab/RNA-GAN.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francisco Carrillo-Perez
- Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research (BMIR), Stanford University, School of Medicine, 1265 Welch Road, Stanford, CA 94305-547, USA
- Computer Engineering, Automatics and Robotics Department, University of Granada, C. Periodista Daniel Saucedo Aranda, s/n, Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain
| | - Marija Pizurica
- Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research (BMIR), Stanford University, School of Medicine, 1265 Welch Road, Stanford, CA 94305-547, USA
- Internet Technology and Data Science Lab (IDLab), Ghent University, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 126, Gent, 9052 Gent, Belgium
| | - Michael G. Ozawa
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
| | - Hannes Vogel
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
| | - Robert B. West
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
| | - Christina S. Kong
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
| | - Luis Javier Herrera
- Computer Engineering, Automatics and Robotics Department, University of Granada, C. Periodista Daniel Saucedo Aranda, s/n, Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain
| | - Jeanne Shen
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Dr, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
| | - Olivier Gevaert
- Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research (BMIR), Stanford University, School of Medicine, 1265 Welch Road, Stanford, CA 94305-547, USA
- Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University, School of Medicine, Medical School Office Building (MSOB), 1265 Welch Road, Stanford, CA 94305-547, USA
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42
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Kang JB, Raveane A, Nathan A, Soranzo N, Raychaudhuri S. Methods and Insights from Single-Cell Expression Quantitative Trait Loci. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 2023; 24:277-303. [PMID: 37196361 PMCID: PMC10784788 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-genom-101422-100437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Recent advancements in single-cell technologies have enabled expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis across many individuals at single-cell resolution. Compared with bulk RNA sequencing, which averages gene expression across cell types and cell states, single-cell assays capture the transcriptional states of individual cells, including fine-grained, transient, and difficult-to-isolate populations at unprecedented scale and resolution. Single-cell eQTL (sc-eQTL) mapping can identify context-dependent eQTLs that vary with cell states, including some that colocalize with disease variants identified in genome-wide association studies. By uncovering the precise contexts in which these eQTLs act, single-cell approaches can unveil previously hidden regulatory effects and pinpoint important cell states underlying molecular mechanisms of disease. Here, we present an overview of recently deployed experimental designs in sc-eQTL studies. In the process, we consider the influence of study design choices such as cohort, cell states, and ex vivo perturbations. We then discuss current methodologies, modeling approaches, and technical challenges as well as future opportunities and applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joyce B Kang
- Center for Data Sciences and Divisions of Genetics and Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; ,
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA;
| | | | - Aparna Nathan
- Center for Data Sciences and Divisions of Genetics and Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; ,
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA;
| | - Nicole Soranzo
- Human Technopole, Milan, Italy; ,
- Department of Human Genetics, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, United Kingdom
- British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence and Department of Haematology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Soumya Raychaudhuri
- Center for Data Sciences and Divisions of Genetics and Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; ,
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Program in Medical and Population Genetics, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA;
- Centre for Genetics and Genomics Versus Arthritis, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
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43
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Luo R, Yan J, Oh JW, Xi W, Shigaki D, Wong W, Cho HS, Murphy D, Cutler R, Rosen BP, Pulecio J, Yang D, Glenn RA, Chen T, Li QV, Vierbuchen T, Sidoli S, Apostolou E, Huangfu D, Beer MA. Dynamic network-guided CRISPRi screen identifies CTCF-loop-constrained nonlinear enhancer gene regulatory activity during cell state transitions. Nat Genet 2023; 55:1336-1346. [PMID: 37488417 PMCID: PMC11012226 DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01450-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2022] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/26/2023]
Abstract
Comprehensive enhancer discovery is challenging because most enhancers, especially those contributing to complex diseases, have weak effects on gene expression. Our gene regulatory network modeling identified that nonlinear enhancer gene regulation during cell state transitions can be leveraged to improve the sensitivity of enhancer discovery. Using human embryonic stem cell definitive endoderm differentiation as a dynamic transition system, we conducted a mid-transition CRISPRi-based enhancer screen. We discovered a comprehensive set of enhancers for each of the core endoderm-specifying transcription factors. Many enhancers had strong effects mid-transition but weak effects post-transition, consistent with the nonlinear temporal responses to enhancer perturbation predicted by the modeling. Integrating three-dimensional genomic information, we were able to develop a CTCF-loop-constrained Interaction Activity model that can better predict functional enhancers compared to models that rely on Hi-C-based enhancer-promoter contact frequency. Our study provides generalizable strategies for sensitive and systematic enhancer discovery in both normal and pathological cell state transitions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Renhe Luo
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
- Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Jielin Yan
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
- Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Jin Woo Oh
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and McKusick-Nathans Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Wang Xi
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and McKusick-Nathans Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Dustin Shigaki
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and McKusick-Nathans Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Wilfred Wong
- Computational & Systems Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
- Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Hyein S Cho
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Dylan Murphy
- Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, NY, USA
- Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Ronald Cutler
- Department of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - Bess P Rosen
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
- Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Julian Pulecio
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Dapeng Yang
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Rachel A Glenn
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
- Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Tingxu Chen
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
- Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Qing V Li
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
- Louis V. Gerstner Jr. Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Thomas Vierbuchen
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Simone Sidoli
- Department of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA
| | - Effie Apostolou
- Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City, NY, USA
| | - Danwei Huangfu
- Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York City, NY, USA.
| | - Michael A Beer
- Department of Biomedical Engineering and McKusick-Nathans Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
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44
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Gaulton KJ, Preissl S, Ren B. Interpreting non-coding disease-associated human variants using single-cell epigenomics. Nat Rev Genet 2023; 24:516-534. [PMID: 37161089 PMCID: PMC10629587 DOI: 10.1038/s41576-023-00598-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have linked hundreds of thousands of sequence variants in the human genome to common traits and diseases. However, translating this knowledge into a mechanistic understanding of disease-relevant biology remains challenging, largely because such variants are predominantly in non-protein-coding sequences that still lack functional annotation at cell-type resolution. Recent advances in single-cell epigenomics assays have enabled the generation of cell type-, subtype- and state-resolved maps of the epigenome in heterogeneous human tissues. These maps have facilitated cell type-specific annotation of candidate cis-regulatory elements and their gene targets in the human genome, enhancing our ability to interpret the genetic basis of common traits and diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyle J Gaulton
- Department of Paediatrics, Paediatric Diabetes Research Center, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA.
| | - Sebastian Preissl
- Center for Epigenomics, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA.
- Institute of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
| | - Bing Ren
- Center for Epigenomics, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA.
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, La Jolla, CA, USA.
- Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, La Jolla, CA, USA.
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45
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Chung A, Reilly MP, Bauer RC. ADAMTS7: a Novel Therapeutic Target in Atherosclerosis. Curr Atheroscler Rep 2023; 25:447-455. [PMID: 37354304 DOI: 10.1007/s11883-023-01115-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/01/2023] [Indexed: 06/26/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Genome-wide association studies have repeatedly linked the metalloproteinase ADAMTS7 to coronary artery disease. Here we aim to highlight recent findings surrounding the human genetics of ADAMTS7, novel mouse models that investigate ADAMTS7 function, and potential substrates of ADAMTS7 cleavage. RECENT FINDINGS Recent genome-wide association studies in coronary artery disease have replicated the GWAS signal for ADAMTS7 and shown that the signal holds true even across different ethnic groups. However, the direction of effect in humans remains unclear. A recent novel mouse model revealed that the proatherogenicity of ADAMTS7 is derived from its catalytic functions, while at the translational level, vaccinating mice against ADAMTS7 reduced atherosclerosis. Finally, in vitro proteomics approaches have identified extracellular matrix proteins as candidate substrates that may be causal for the proatherogenicity of ADAMTS7. ADAMTS7 represents an enticing target for therapeutic intervention. The recent studies highlighted here have replicated prior findings, confirming the genetic link between ADAMTS7 and atherosclerosis, while providing further evidence in mice that ADAMTS7 is a targetable proatherogenic enzyme.
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Affiliation(s)
- Allen Chung
- Cardiometabolic Genomics Program, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Muredach P Reilly
- Cardiometabolic Genomics Program, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | - Robert C Bauer
- Cardiometabolic Genomics Program, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
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46
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Yu L, Xu L, Chu H, Peng J, Sacharidou A, Hsieh HH, Weinstock A, Khan S, Ma L, Durán JGB, McDonald J, Nelson ER, Park S, McDonnell DP, Moore KJ, Huang LJS, Fisher EA, Mineo C, Huang L, Shaul PW. Macrophage-to-endothelial cell crosstalk by the cholesterol metabolite 27HC promotes atherosclerosis in male mice. Nat Commun 2023; 14:4101. [PMID: 37491347 PMCID: PMC10368733 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39586-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Hypercholesterolemia and vascular inflammation are key interconnected contributors to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. How hypercholesterolemia initiates vascular inflammation is poorly understood. Here we show in male mice that hypercholesterolemia-driven endothelial activation, monocyte recruitment and atherosclerotic lesion formation are promoted by a crosstalk between macrophages and endothelial cells mediated by the cholesterol metabolite 27-hydroxycholesterol (27HC). The pro-atherogenic actions of macrophage-derived 27HC require endothelial estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) and disassociation of the cytoplasmic scaffolding protein septin 11 from ERα, leading to extranuclear ERα- and septin 11-dependent activation of NF-κB. Furthermore, pharmacologic inhibition of cyp27a1, which generates 27HC, affords atheroprotection by reducing endothelial activation and monocyte recruitment. These findings demonstrate cell-to-cell communication by 27HC, and identify a major causal linkage between the hypercholesterolemia and vascular inflammation that partner to promote atherosclerosis. Interventions interrupting this linkage may provide the means to blunt vascular inflammation without impairing host defense to combat the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease that remains despite lipid-lowering therapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liming Yu
- Center for Pulmonary and Vascular Biology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Lin Xu
- Quantitative Biomedical Research Center and Peter O'Donnell Jr. School of Public Health, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Haiyan Chu
- Center for Pulmonary and Vascular Biology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Jun Peng
- Center for Pulmonary and Vascular Biology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Anastasia Sacharidou
- Center for Pulmonary and Vascular Biology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Hsi-Hsien Hsieh
- Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Ada Weinstock
- Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA
- Department of Medicine, University of Chicago School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA
| | - Sohaib Khan
- University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, Cincinnati, OH, 45267, USA
| | - Liqian Ma
- Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
| | | | - Jeffrey McDonald
- Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Erik R Nelson
- Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
| | - Sunghee Park
- Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, 27710, USA
| | - Donald P McDonnell
- Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, 27710, USA
| | - Kathryn J Moore
- Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA
| | - Lily Jun-Shen Huang
- Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Edward A Fisher
- Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, 10016, USA
| | - Chieko Mineo
- Center for Pulmonary and Vascular Biology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
- Department of Cell Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA
| | - Linzhang Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
- Shanghai Key Laboratory of Metabolic Remodeling and Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
- Institute of Metabolism and Integrative Biology, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
| | - Philip W Shaul
- Center for Pulmonary and Vascular Biology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA.
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47
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Przytycki PF. Uncovering the genetic circuits that drive diseases. NATURE COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE 2023; 3:584-585. [PMID: 38177750 DOI: 10.1038/s43588-023-00475-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/06/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Pawel F Przytycki
- Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
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48
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Song L, Sun X, Qi T, Yang J. Mixed model-based deconvolution of cell-state abundances (MeDuSA) along a one-dimensional trajectory. NATURE COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE 2023; 3:630-643. [PMID: 38177744 PMCID: PMC10766563 DOI: 10.1038/s43588-023-00487-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024]
Abstract
Deconvoluting cell-state abundances from bulk RNA-sequencing data can add considerable value to existing data, but achieving fine-resolution and high-accuracy deconvolution remains a challenge. Here we introduce MeDuSA, a mixed model-based method that leverages single-cell RNA-sequencing data as a reference to estimate cell-state abundances along a one-dimensional trajectory in bulk RNA-sequencing data. The advantage of MeDuSA lies primarily in estimating cell abundance in each state while fitting the remaining cells of the same type individually as random effects. Extensive simulations and real-data benchmark analyses demonstrate that MeDuSA greatly improves the estimation accuracy over existing methods for one-dimensional trajectories. Applying MeDuSA to cohort-level RNA-sequencing datasets reveals associations of cell-state abundances with disease or treatment conditions and cell-state-dependent genetic control of transcription. Our study provides a high-accuracy and fine-resolution method for cell-state deconvolution along a one-dimensional trajectory and demonstrates its utility in characterizing the dynamics of cell states in various biological processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liyang Song
- College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Xiwei Sun
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Ting Qi
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
| | - Jian Yang
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
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49
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Xiao Y, Wang J, Li J, Zhang P, Li J, Zhou Y, Zhou Q, Chen M, Sheng X, Liu Z, Han X, Guo G. An analytical framework for decoding cell type-specific genetic variation of gene regulation. Nat Commun 2023; 14:3884. [PMID: 37391400 PMCID: PMC10313894 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39538-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2022] [Accepted: 06/16/2023] [Indexed: 07/02/2023] Open
Abstract
A deeper understanding of genetic regulation and functional mechanisms underlying genetic associations with complex traits and diseases is impeded by cellular heterogeneity and linkage disequilibrium. To address these limits, we introduce Huatuo, a framework to decode genetic variation of gene regulation at cell type and single-nucleotide resolutions by integrating deep-learning-based variant predictions with population-based association analyses. We apply Huatuo to generate a comprehensive cell type-specific genetic variation landscape across human tissues and further evaluate their potential roles in complex diseases and traits. Finally, we show that Huatuo's inferences permit prioritizations of driver cell types associated with complex traits and diseases and allow for systematic insights into the mechanisms of phenotype-causal genetic variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanyu Xiao
- Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and Bone Marrow Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310000, China
- Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University Medical Center, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 311121, China
| | - Jingjing Wang
- Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and Bone Marrow Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310000, China.
- Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University Medical Center, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 311121, China.
| | - Jiaqi Li
- Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and Bone Marrow Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310000, China
| | - Peijing Zhang
- Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and Bone Marrow Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310000, China
- Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University Medical Center, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 311121, China
| | - Jingyu Li
- Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and Bone Marrow Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310000, China
| | - Yincong Zhou
- College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310003, China
| | - Qing Zhou
- Life Sciences Institute, Zhejiang University, Hang Zhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China
| | - Ming Chen
- College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310003, China
| | - Xin Sheng
- Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University Medical Center, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 311121, China
| | - Zhihong Liu
- Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University Medical Center, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 311121, China
| | - Xiaoping Han
- Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and Bone Marrow Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310000, China.
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Lab for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Li Dak Sum & Yip Yio Chin Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China.
| | - Guoji Guo
- Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, and Bone Marrow Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310000, China.
- Liangzhu Laboratory, Zhejiang University Medical Center, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 311121, China.
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Lab for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Dr. Li Dak Sum & Yip Yio Chin Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China.
- Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 314400, China.
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50
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Kasela S, Aguet F, Kim-Hellmuth S, Brown BC, Nachun DC, Tracy RP, Durda P, Liu Y, Taylor KD, Craig Johnson W, Berg DVD, Gabriel S, Gupta N, Smith JD, Blackwell TW, Rotter JI, Ardlie KG, Manichaikul A, Rich SS, Graham Barr R, Lappalainen T. Interaction molecular QTL mapping discovers cellular and environmental modifiers of genetic regulatory effects. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.06.26.546528. [PMID: 37425716 PMCID: PMC10326995 DOI: 10.1101/2023.06.26.546528] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/11/2023]
Abstract
Bulk tissue molecular quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have been the starting point for interpreting disease-associated variants, while context-specific QTLs show particular relevance for disease. Here, we present the results of mapping interaction QTLs (iQTLs) for cell type, age, and other phenotypic variables in multi-omic, longitudinal data from blood of individuals of diverse ancestries. By modeling the interaction between genotype and estimated cell type proportions, we demonstrate that cell type iQTLs could be considered as proxies for cell type-specific QTL effects. The interpretation of age iQTLs, however, warrants caution as the moderation effect of age on the genotype and molecular phenotype association may be mediated by changes in cell type composition. Finally, we show that cell type iQTLs contribute to cell type-specific enrichment of diseases that, in combination with additional functional data, may guide future functional studies. Overall, this study highlights iQTLs to gain insights into the context-specificity of regulatory effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silva Kasela
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - Sarah Kim-Hellmuth
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, University Hospital LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
- Computational Health Center, Institute of Translational Genomics, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
| | - Brielin C. Brown
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Data Science Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
| | | | - Russell P. Tracy
- Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Vermont, Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Peter Durda
- Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Vermont, Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, VT, USA
| | - Yongmei Liu
- Department of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Kent D. Taylor
- Department of Pediatrics, The Institute for Translational Genomics and Population Sciences, The Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA
| | - W. Craig Johnson
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - David Van Den Berg
- Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | | | - Namrata Gupta
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Joshua D. Smith
- Northwest Genomic Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Thomas W. Blackwell
- Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Jerome I. Rotter
- Department of Pediatrics, The Institute for Translational Genomics and Population Sciences, The Lundquist Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA
| | | | - Ani Manichaikul
- Center for Public health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - Stephen S. Rich
- Center for Public health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
| | - R. Graham Barr
- Epidemiology and Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Tuuli Lappalainen
- New York Genome Center, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- Science for Life Laboratory, Department of Gene Technology, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
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