1
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Stone K, Platig J, Quackenbush J, Fagny M. Complex Traits Heritability is Highly Clustered in the eQTL Bipartite Network. bioRxiv 2024:2024.02.27.582063. [PMID: 38464142 PMCID: PMC10925220 DOI: 10.1101/2024.02.27.582063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/12/2024]
Abstract
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with traits typically explain a small part of the trait genetic heritability-with the remainder thought to be distributed throughout the genome. Such SNPs are likely to alter expression levels of biologically relevant genes. Expression Quantitative Trait Locus (eQTL) networks analysis has helped to functionally characterize such variants. We systematically analyze the distribution of SNP heritability for ten traits across 29 tissue-specific eQTL networks. We find that heritability is clustered in a small number or tissue-specific, functionally relevant SNP-gene modules and that the greatest occurs in local "hubs" that are both the cornerstone of the network's modules and tissue-specific regulatory elements. The network structure could thus both amplify the genotype-phenotype connection and buffer the deleterious effect of the genetic variations on other traits. Together, these results define a conceptual framework for understanding complex trait architecture and identifying key mutations carrying most of the heritability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine Stone
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Department of Data Science and Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - John Platig
- Center for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Department of Data Science and Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
| | - Maud Fagny
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Department of Data Science and Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, CNRS, AgroParisTech, Genetique Quantitative et Evolution - Le Moulon, Gif-sur-Yvette 91190 France
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2
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Ben Guebila M, Wang T, Lopes-Ramos CM, Fanfani V, Weighill D, Burkholz R, Schlauch D, Paulson JN, Altenbuchinger M, Shutta KH, Sonawane AR, Lim J, Calderer G, van IJzendoorn DGP, Morgan D, Marin A, Chen CY, Song Q, Saha E, DeMeo DL, Padi M, Platig J, Kuijjer ML, Glass K, Quackenbush J. The Network Zoo: a multilingual package for the inference and analysis of gene regulatory networks. Genome Biol 2023; 24:45. [PMID: 36894939 PMCID: PMC9999668 DOI: 10.1186/s13059-023-02877-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2023] [Indexed: 03/11/2023] Open
Abstract
Inference and analysis of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) require software that integrates multi-omic data from various sources. The Network Zoo (netZoo; netzoo.github.io) is a collection of open-source methods to infer GRNs, conduct differential network analyses, estimate community structure, and explore the transitions between biological states. The netZoo builds on our ongoing development of network methods, harmonizing the implementations in various computing languages and between methods to allow better integration of these tools into analytical pipelines. We demonstrate the utility using multi-omic data from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia. We will continue to expand the netZoo to incorporate additional methods.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marouen Ben Guebila
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Tian Wang
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Present Address: Biology Department, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA
| | - Camila M Lopes-Ramos
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Viola Fanfani
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Des Weighill
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Present Address: Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Rebekka Burkholz
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Present Address: CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Saarbrücken, Germany
| | - Daniel Schlauch
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Present Address: Genospace, LLC, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Joseph N Paulson
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA
| | - Michael Altenbuchinger
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Present Address: Department of Medical Bioinformatics, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Katherine H Shutta
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Abhijeet R Sonawane
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Present Address: Center for Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular Sciences, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - James Lim
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
- Present Address: Monoceros Biosystems, LLC, San Diego, CA, USA
| | - Genis Calderer
- Center for Molecular Medicine Norway, Nordic EMBL Partnership, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - David G P van IJzendoorn
- Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Present Address: Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - Daniel Morgan
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Present Address: School of Biomedical Sciences, Hong Kong University, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
| | | | - Cho-Yi Chen
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA
- Present Address: Institute of Biomedical Informatics, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taipei, 112, Taiwan
| | - Qi Song
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Present Address: Computational Biology Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Enakshi Saha
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Dawn L DeMeo
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Megha Padi
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Marieke L Kuijjer
- Center for Molecular Medicine Norway, Nordic EMBL Partnership, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Pathology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Leiden Center for Computational Oncology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
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3
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Gaynor SM, Fagny M, Lin X, Platig J, Quackenbush J. Connectivity in eQTL networks dictates reproducibility and genomic properties. Cell Rep Methods 2022; 2:100218. [PMID: 35637906 PMCID: PMC9142682 DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2022.100218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2021] [Revised: 02/08/2022] [Accepted: 04/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
Expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis associates SNPs with gene expression; these relationships can be represented as a bipartite network with association strength as "edge weights" between SNPs and genes. However, most eQTL networks use binary edge weights based on thresholded FDR estimates: definitions that influence reproducibility and downstream analyses. We constructed twenty-nine tissue-specific eQTL networks using GTEx data and evaluated a comprehensive set of network specifications based on false discovery rates, test statistics, and p values, focusing on the degree centrality-a metric of an SNP or gene node's potential network influence. We found a thresholded Benjamini-Hochberg q value weighted by the Z-statistic balances metric reproducibility and computational efficiency. Our estimated gene degrees positively correlate with gene degrees in gene regulatory networks, demonstrating that these networks are complementary in understanding regulation. Gene degrees also correlate with genetic diversity, and heritability analyses show that highly connected nodes are enriched for tissue-relevant traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sheila M. Gaynor
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology and Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Maud Fagny
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology and Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Université Paris-Saclay, INRAE, CNRS, AgroParisTech, GQE - Le Moulon, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Xihong Lin
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Department of Statistics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - John Platig
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology and Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology and Center for Cancer Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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4
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Weighill D, Ben Guebila M, Glass K, Quackenbush J, Platig J. Predicting genotype-specific gene regulatory networks. Genome Res 2022; 32:524-533. [PMID: 35193937 PMCID: PMC8896459 DOI: 10.1101/gr.275107.120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Understanding how each person's unique genotype influences their individual patterns of gene regulation has the potential to improve our understanding of human health and development, and to refine genotype-specific disease risk assessments and treatments. However, the effects of genetic variants are not typically considered when constructing gene regulatory networks, despite the fact that many disease-associated genetic variants are thought to have regulatory effects, including the disruption of transcription factor (TF) binding. We developed EGRET (Estimating the Genetic Regulatory Effect on TFs), which infers a genotype-specific gene regulatory network for each individual in a study population. EGRET begins by constructing a genotype-informed TF-gene prior network derived using TF motif predictions, expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data, individual genotypes, and the predicted effects of genetic variants on TF binding. It then uses a technique known as message passing to integrate this prior network with gene expression and TF protein–protein interaction data to produce a refined, genotype-specific regulatory network. We used EGRET to infer gene regulatory networks for two blood-derived cell lines and identified genotype-associated, cell line–specific regulatory differences that we subsequently validated using allele-specific expression, chromatin accessibility QTLs, and differential ChIP-seq TF binding. We also inferred EGRET networks for three cell types from each of 119 individuals and identified cell type–specific regulatory differences associated with diseases related to those cell types. EGRET is, to our knowledge, the first method that infers networks reflective of individual genetic variation in a way that provides insight into the genetic regulatory associations driving complex phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Deborah Weighill
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | | | - Kimberly Glass
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
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5
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Ben Guebila M, Lopes-Ramos CM, Weighill D, Sonawane A, Burkholz R, Shamsaei B, Platig J, Glass K, Kuijjer M, Quackenbush J. GRAND: a database of gene regulatory network models across human conditions. Nucleic Acids Res 2022; 50:D610-D621. [PMID: 34508353 PMCID: PMC8728257 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab778] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2021] [Revised: 08/17/2021] [Accepted: 09/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Gene regulation plays a fundamental role in shaping tissue identity, function, and response to perturbation. Regulatory processes are controlled by complex networks of interacting elements, including transcription factors, miRNAs and their target genes. The structure of these networks helps to determine phenotypes and can ultimately influence the development of disease or response to therapy. We developed GRAND (https://grand.networkmedicine.org) as a database for computationally-inferred, context-specific gene regulatory network models that can be compared between biological states, or used to predict which drugs produce changes in regulatory network structure. The database includes 12 468 genome-scale networks covering 36 human tissues, 28 cancers, 1378 unperturbed cell lines, as well as 173 013 TF and gene targeting scores for 2858 small molecule-induced cell line perturbation paired with phenotypic information. GRAND allows the networks to be queried using phenotypic information and visualized using a variety of interactive tools. In addition, it includes a web application that matches disease states to potentially therapeutic small molecule drugs using regulatory network properties.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marouen Ben Guebila
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Deborah Weighill
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Abhijeet Rajendra Sonawane
- Center for Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular Sciences, Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA02115, USA
| | - Rebekka Burkholz
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Behrouz Shamsaei
- Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Marieke L Kuijjer
- Center for Molecular Medicine Norway, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
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6
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Lackey L, Coria A, Ghosh AJ, Grayeski P, Hatfield A, Shankar V, Platig J, Xu Z, Ramos SBV, Silverman EK, Ortega VE, Cho MH, Hersh CP, Hobbs BD, Castaldi P, Laederach A. Alternative poly-adenylation modulates α1-antitrypsin expression in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. PLoS Genet 2021; 17:e1009912. [PMID: 34784346 PMCID: PMC8631626 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009912] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Revised: 11/30/2021] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 01/07/2023] Open
Abstract
α1-anti-trypsin (A1AT), encoded by SERPINA1, is a neutrophil elastase inhibitor that controls the inflammatory response in the lung. Severe A1AT deficiency increases risk for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), however, the role of A1AT in COPD in non-deficient individuals is not well known. We identify a 2.1-fold increase (p = 2.5x10-6) in the use of a distal poly-adenylation site in primary lung tissue RNA-seq in 82 COPD cases when compared to 64 controls and replicate this in an independent study of 376 COPD and 267 controls. This alternative polyadenylation event involves two sites, a proximal and distal site, 61 and 1683 nucleotides downstream of the A1AT stop codon. To characterize this event, we measured the distal ratio in human primary tissue short read RNA-seq data and corroborated our results with long read RNA-seq data. Integrating these results with 3' end RNA-seq and nanoluciferase reporter assay experiments we show that use of the distal site yields mRNA transcripts with over 50-fold decreased translation efficiency and A1AT expression. We identified seven RNA binding proteins using enhanced CrossLinking and ImmunoPrecipitation precipitation (eCLIP) with one or more binding sites in the SERPINA1 3' UTR. We combined these data with measurements of the distal ratio in shRNA knockdown experiments, nuclear and cytoplasmic fractionation, and chemical RNA structure probing. We identify Quaking Homolog (QKI) as a modulator of SERPINA1 mRNA translation and confirm the role of QKI in SERPINA1 translation with luciferase reporter assays. Analysis of single-cell RNA-seq showed differences in the distribution of the SERPINA1 distal ratio among hepatocytes, macrophages, αβ-Tcells and plasma cells in the liver. Alveolar Type 1,2, dendritic cells and macrophages also vary in their distal ratio in the lung. Our work reveals a complex post-transcriptional mechanism that regulates alternative polyadenylation and A1AT expression in COPD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lela Lackey
- Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Center for Human Genetics, Clemson University, Greenwood, South Carolina, United States of America
- * E-mail: (LL); (AL)
| | - Aaztli Coria
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Auyon J. Ghosh
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Phil Grayeski
- Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Abigail Hatfield
- Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Center for Human Genetics, Clemson University, Greenwood, South Carolina, United States of America
| | - Vijay Shankar
- Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Center for Human Genetics, Clemson University, Greenwood, South Carolina, United States of America
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Zhonghui Xu
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Silvia B. V. Ramos
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
| | - Edwin K. Silverman
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Victor E. Ortega
- Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Respiratory Medicine, Center for Individualized Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States of America
| | - Michael H. Cho
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Craig P. Hersh
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Brian D. Hobbs
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Peter Castaldi
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Alain Laederach
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America
- * E-mail: (LL); (AL)
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7
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Xu Z, Platig J, Lee S, Boueiz A, Chase R, Jain D, Gregory A, Suryadevara R, Berman S, Bowler R, Hersh CP, Laederach A, Castaldi PJ. Cigarette smoking-associated isoform switching and 3' UTR lengthening via alternative polyadenylation. Genomics 2021; 113:4184-4195. [PMID: 34763026 PMCID: PMC8722433 DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2021.11.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/03/2021] [Revised: 10/22/2021] [Accepted: 11/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Cigarette smoking induces a profound transcriptomic and systemic inflammatory response. Previous studies have focused on gene level differential expression of smoking, but the genome-wide effects of smoking on alternative isoform regulation have not yet been described. We conducted RNA sequencing in whole-blood samples of 454 current and 767 former smokers in the COPDGene Study, and we analyzed the effects of smoking on differential usage of isoforms and exons. At 10% FDR, we detected 3167 differentially expressed genes, 945 differentially used isoforms and 160 differentially used exons. Isoform switch analysis revealed widespread 3' UTR lengthening associated with cigarette smoking. The lengthening of these 3' UTRs was consistent with alternative usage of distal polyadenylation sites, and these extended 3' UTR regions were significantly enriched with functional sequence elements including microRNA and RNA-protein binding sites. These findings warrant further studies on alternative polyadenylation events as potential biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets for smoking-related diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhonghui Xu
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sool Lee
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Adel Boueiz
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Rob Chase
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Dhawal Jain
- Pulmonary Drug Discovery Laboratory, Bayer US LLC. Pharmaceuticals, Research & Development, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Andrew Gregory
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Seth Berman
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Russell Bowler
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO, USA
| | - Craig P Hersh
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Alain Laederach
- Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
| | - Peter J Castaldi
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
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8
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Lopes-Ramos CM, Chen CY, Kuijjer ML, Paulson JN, Sonawane AR, Fagny M, Platig J, Glass K, Quackenbush J, DeMeo DL. Sex Differences in Gene Expression and Regulatory Networks across 29 Human Tissues. Cell Rep 2021; 31:107795. [PMID: 32579922 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107795] [Citation(s) in RCA: 148] [Impact Index Per Article: 49.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2016] [Revised: 04/01/2020] [Accepted: 05/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Sex differences manifest in many diseases and may drive sex-specific therapeutic responses. To understand the molecular basis of sex differences, we evaluated sex-biased gene regulation by constructing sample-specific gene regulatory networks in 29 human healthy tissues using 8,279 whole-genome expression profiles from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. We find sex-biased regulatory network structures in each tissue. Even though most transcription factors (TFs) are not differentially expressed between males and females, many have sex-biased regulatory targeting patterns. In each tissue, genes that are differentially targeted by TFs between the sexes are enriched for tissue-related functions and diseases. In brain tissue, for example, genes associated with Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease are targeted by different sets of TFs in each sex. Our systems-based analysis identifies a repertoire of TFs that play important roles in sex-specific architecture of gene regulatory networks, and it underlines sex-specific regulatory processes in both health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Cho-Yi Chen
- Institute of Biomedical Informatics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Marieke L Kuijjer
- Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway (NCMM), Nordic EMBL Partnership, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Joseph N Paulson
- Department of Biostatistics, Product Development, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Abhijeet R Sonawane
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Maud Fagny
- Genetique Quantitative et Evolution-Le Moulon, Universite Paris-Saclay, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, AgroParisTech, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
| | - Dawn L DeMeo
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
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9
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Abstract
Profiling of whole transcriptomes has become a cornerstone of molecular biology and an invaluable tool for the characterization of clinical phenotypes and the identification of disease subtypes. Analyses of these data are becoming ever more sophisticated as we move beyond simple comparisons to consider networks of higher-order interactions and associations. Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) model the regulatory relationships of transcription factors and genes and have allowed the identification of differentially regulated processes in disease systems. In this perspective, we discuss gene targeting scores, which measure changes in inferred regulatory network interactions, and their use in identifying disease-relevant processes. In addition, we present an example analysis for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), demonstrating the power of gene targeting scores to identify differential processes between complex phenotypes, processes that would have been missed by only performing differential expression analysis. This example demonstrates that gene targeting scores are an invaluable addition to gene expression analysis in the characterization of diseases and other complex phenotypes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Deborah Weighill
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Marouen Ben Guebila
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
- Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
- Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Jen Jen Yeh
- Departments of Surgery and Pharmacology, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, United States
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
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10
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Weighill D, Guebila MB, Lopes-Ramos C, Glass K, Quackenbush J, Platig J, Burkholz R. Gene regulatory network inference as relaxed graph matching. Proc AAAI Conf Artif Intell 2021; 35:10263-10272. [PMID: 34707916 PMCID: PMC8546743] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Bipartite network inference is a ubiquitous problem across disciplines. One important example in the field molecular biology is gene regulatory network inference. Gene regulatory networks are an instrumental tool aiding in the discovery of the molecular mechanisms driving diverse diseases, including cancer. However, only noisy observations of the projections of these regulatory networks are typically assayed. In an effort to better estimate regulatory networks from their noisy projections, we formulate a non-convex but analytically tractable optimization problem called OTTER. This problem can be interpreted as relaxed graph matching between the two projections of the bipartite network. OTTER's solutions can be derived explicitly and inspire a spectral algorithm, for which we provide network recovery guarantees. We also provide an alternative approach based on gradient descent that is more robust to noise compared to the spectral algorithm. Interestingly, this gradient descent approach resembles the message passing equations of an established gene regulatory network inference method, PANDA. Using three cancer-related data sets, we show that OTTER outperforms state-of-the-art inference methods in predicting transcription factor binding to gene regulatory regions. To encourage new graph matching applications to this problem, we have made all networks and validation data publicly available.
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Affiliation(s)
- Deborah Weighill
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Marouen Ben Guebila
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Camila Lopes-Ramos
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Rebekka Burkholz
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
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11
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Young AT, Carette X, Helmel M, Steen H, Husson RN, Quackenbush J, Platig J. Multi-omic regulatory networks capture downstream effects of kinase inhibition in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. NPJ Syst Biol Appl 2021; 7:8. [PMID: 33514755 PMCID: PMC7846781 DOI: 10.1038/s41540-020-00164-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2020] [Accepted: 12/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to adapt to diverse stresses in its host environment is crucial for pathogenesis. Two essential Mtb serine/threonine protein kinases, PknA and PknB, regulate cell growth in response to environmental stimuli, but little is known about their downstream effects. By combining RNA-Seq data, following treatment with either an inhibitor of both PknA and PknB or an inactive control, with publicly available ChIP-Seq and protein–protein interaction data for transcription factors, we show that the Mtb transcription factor (TF) regulatory network propagates the effects of kinase inhibition and leads to widespread changes in regulatory programs involved in cell wall integrity, stress response, and energy production, among others. We also observe that changes in TF regulatory activity correlate with kinase-specific phosphorylation of those TFs. In addition to characterizing the downstream regulatory effects of PknA/PknB inhibition, this demonstrates the need for regulatory network approaches that can incorporate signal-driven transcription factor modifications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Albert T Young
- School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, USA
| | - Xavier Carette
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
| | - Michaela Helmel
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.,Department of Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA
| | - Hanno Steen
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.,Department of Pathology, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA
| | - Robert N Husson
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.,Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, USA
| | - John Platig
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. .,Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, USA.
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12
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Zeng J, Platig J, Cheng TY, Ahmed S, Skaf Y, Potluri LP, Schwartz D, Steen H, Moody DB, Husson RN. Protein kinases PknA and PknB independently and coordinately regulate essential Mycobacterium tuberculosis physiologies and antimicrobial susceptibility. PLoS Pathog 2020; 16:e1008452. [PMID: 32255801 PMCID: PMC7164672 DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1008452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2019] [Revised: 04/17/2020] [Accepted: 03/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis Ser/Thr protein kinases PknA and PknB are essential for growth and have been proposed as possible drug targets. We used a titratable conditional depletion system to investigate the functions of these kinases. Depletion of PknA or PknB or both kinases resulted in growth arrest, shortening of cells, and time-dependent loss of acid-fast staining with a concomitant decrease in mycolate synthesis and accumulation of trehalose monomycolate. Depletion of PknA and/or PknB resulted in markedly increased susceptibility to β-lactam antibiotics, and to the key tuberculosis drug rifampin. Phosphoproteomic analysis showed extensive changes in protein phosphorylation in response to PknA depletion and comparatively fewer changes with PknB depletion. These results identify candidate substrates of each kinase and suggest specific and coordinate roles for PknA and PknB in regulating multiple essential physiologies. These findings support these kinases as targets for new antituberculosis drugs and provide a valuable resource for targeted investigation of mechanisms by which protein phosphorylation regulates pathways required for growth and virulence in M. tuberculosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jumei Zeng
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
| | - Tan-Yun Cheng
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunity and Inflammation, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, United States of America
| | - Saima Ahmed
- Department of Pathology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Yara Skaf
- Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
| | - Lakshmi-Prasad Potluri
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - Daniel Schwartz
- Department of Physiology and Neurobiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States of America
| | - Hanno Steen
- Department of Pathology, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
| | - D. Branch Moody
- Division of Rheumatology, Immunity and Inflammation, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, United States of America
| | - Robert N. Husson
- Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States of America
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13
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Fagny M, Platig J, Kuijjer ML, Lin X, Quackenbush J. Nongenic cancer-risk SNPs affect oncogenes, tumour-suppressor genes, and immune function. Br J Cancer 2019; 122:569-577. [PMID: 31806877 PMCID: PMC7028992 DOI: 10.1038/s41416-019-0614-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2019] [Revised: 09/23/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Genome-wide association studies (GWASes) have identified many noncoding germline single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with an increased risk of developing cancer. However, how these SNPs affect cancer risk is still largely unknown. Methods We used a systems biology approach to analyse the regulatory role of cancer-risk SNPs in thirteen tissues. By using data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project, we performed an expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis. We represented both significant cis- and trans-eQTLs as edges in tissue-specific eQTL bipartite networks. Results Each tissue-specific eQTL network is organised into communities that group sets of SNPs and functionally related genes. When mapping cancer-risk SNPs to these networks, we find that in each tissue, these SNPs are significantly overrepresented in communities enriched for immune response processes, as well as tissue-specific functions. Moreover, cancer-risk SNPs are more likely to be ‘cores’ of their communities, influencing the expression of many genes within the same biological processes. Finally, cancer-risk SNPs preferentially target oncogenes and tumour-suppressor genes, suggesting that they may alter the expression of these key cancer genes. Conclusions This approach provides a new way of understanding genetic effects on cancer risk and provides a biological context for interpreting the results of GWAS cancer studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maud Fagny
- Genetique Quantitative et Evolution-Le Moulon, Institut National de la Recherche agronomique, Université Paris-Sud, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.,Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Marieke Lydia Kuijjer
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.,Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.,Centre for Molecular Medicine Norway, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Xihong Lin
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. .,Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA. .,Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. .,Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
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14
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Parker MM, Hao Y, Guo F, Pham B, Chase R, Platig J, Cho MH, Hersh CP, Thannickal VJ, Crapo J, Washko G, Randell SH, Silverman EK, San José Estépar R, Zhou X, Castaldi PJ. Identification of an emphysema-associated genetic variant near TGFB2 with regulatory effects in lung fibroblasts. eLife 2019; 8:e42720. [PMID: 31343404 PMCID: PMC6693893 DOI: 10.7554/elife.42720] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2018] [Accepted: 07/25/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Murine studies have linked TGF-β signaling to emphysema, and human genome-wide association studies (GWAS) studies of lung function and COPD have identified associated regions near genes in the TGF-β superfamily. However, the functional regulatory mechanisms at these loci have not been identified. We performed the largest GWAS of emphysema patterns to date, identifying 10 GWAS loci including an association peak spanning a 200 kb region downstream from TGFB2. Integrative analysis of publicly available eQTL, DNaseI, and chromatin conformation data identified a putative functional variant, rs1690789, that may regulate TGFB2 expression in human fibroblasts. Using chromatin conformation capture, we confirmed that the region containing rs1690789 contacts the TGFB2 promoter in fibroblasts, and CRISPR/Cas-9 targeted deletion of a ~ 100 bp region containing rs1690789 resulted in decreased TGFB2 expression in primary human lung fibroblasts. These data provide novel mechanistic evidence linking genetic variation affecting the TGF-β pathway to emphysema in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margaret M Parker
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - Yuan Hao
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - Feng Guo
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - Betty Pham
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - Robert Chase
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - John Platig
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - Michael H Cho
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - Craig P Hersh
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - Victor J Thannickal
- Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care, Department of MedicineSchool of Medicine, University of Alabama at BirminghamBirminghamUnited States
| | - James Crapo
- Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep MedicineNational Jewish HealthDenverUnited States
| | - George Washko
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - Scott H Randell
- Marsico Lung InstituteThe University of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel HillUnited States
| | - Edwin K Silverman
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | | | - Xiaobo Zhou
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
| | - Peter J Castaldi
- Channing Division of Network MedicineBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
- Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary CareBrigham and Women’s HospitalBostonUnited States
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15
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Barry JD, Fagny M, Paulson JN, Aerts HJWL, Platig J, Quackenbush J. Histopathological Image QTL Discovery of Immune Infiltration Variants. iScience 2018; 5:80-89. [PMID: 30240647 PMCID: PMC6123851 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2018.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2018] [Revised: 05/30/2018] [Accepted: 07/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Genotype-to-phenotype association studies typically use macroscopic physiological measurements or molecular readouts as quantitative traits. There are comparatively few suitable quantitative traits available between cell and tissue length scales, a limitation that hinders our ability to identify variants affecting phenotype at many clinically informative levels. Here we show that quantitative image features, automatically extracted from histopathological imaging data, can be used for image quantitative trait loci (iQTLs) mapping and variant discovery. Using thyroid pathology images, clinical metadata, and genomics data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project, we establish and validate a quantitative imaging biomarker for immune cell infiltration. A total of 100,215 variants were selected for iQTL profiling and tested for genotype-phenotype associations with our quantitative imaging biomarker. Significant associations were found in HDAC9 and TXNDC5. We validated the TXNDC5 association using GTEx cis-expression QTL data and an independent hypothyroidism dataset from the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph D Barry
- Center for Cancer Computational Biology and Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 667 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
| | - Maud Fagny
- Center for Cancer Computational Biology and Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 667 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Joseph N Paulson
- Center for Cancer Computational Biology and Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 667 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Hugo J W L Aerts
- Department of Radiology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - John Platig
- Center for Cancer Computational Biology and Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 667 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Center for Cancer Computational Biology and Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 667 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA
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16
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Morrow JD, Cho MH, Platig J, Zhou X, DeMeo DL, Qiu W, Celli B, Marchetti N, Criner GJ, Bueno R, Washko GR, Glass K, Quackenbush J, Silverman EK, Hersh CP. Ensemble genomic analysis in human lung tissue identifies novel genes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Hum Genomics 2018; 12:1. [PMID: 29335020 PMCID: PMC5769240 DOI: 10.1186/s40246-018-0132-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2017] [Accepted: 01/02/2018] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, many genetic variants show suggestive evidence for association but do not meet the strict threshold for genome-wide significance. Integrative analysis of multiple omics datasets has the potential to identify novel genes involved in disease pathogenesis by leveraging these variants in a functional, regulatory context. RESULTS We performed expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analysis using genome-wide SNP genotyping and gene expression profiling of lung tissue samples from 86 COPD cases and 31 controls, testing for SNPs associated with gene expression levels. These results were integrated with a prior COPD GWAS using an ensemble statistical and network methods approach to identify relevant genes and observe them in the context of overall genetic control of gene expression to highlight co-regulated genes and disease pathways. We identified 250,312 unique SNPs and 4997 genes in the cis(local)-eQTL analysis (5% false discovery rate). The top gene from the integrative analysis was MAPT, a gene recently identified in an independent GWAS of lung function. The genes HNRNPAB and PCBP2 with RNA binding activity and the gene ACVR1B were identified in network communities with validated disease relevance. CONCLUSIONS The integration of lung tissue gene expression with genome-wide SNP genotyping and subsequent intersection with prior GWAS and omics studies highlighted candidate genes within COPD loci and in communities harboring known COPD genes. This integration also identified novel disease genes in sub-threshold regions that would otherwise have been missed through GWAS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jarrett D Morrow
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
| | - Michael H Cho
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - John Platig
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Xiaobo Zhou
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Dawn L DeMeo
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Weiliang Qiu
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Bartholome Celli
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Nathaniel Marchetti
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, USA
| | - Gerard J Criner
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, USA
| | - Raphael Bueno
- Division of Thoracic Surgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - George R Washko
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Edwin K Silverman
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Craig P Hersh
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
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17
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Sonawane AR, Platig J, Fagny M, Chen CY, Paulson JN, Lopes-Ramos CM, DeMeo DL, Quackenbush J, Glass K, Kuijjer ML. Understanding Tissue-Specific Gene Regulation. Cell Rep 2017; 21:1077-1088. [PMID: 29069589 PMCID: PMC5828531 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 210] [Impact Index Per Article: 30.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2017] [Revised: 08/09/2017] [Accepted: 09/28/2017] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Although all human tissues carry out common processes, tissues are distinguished by gene expression patterns, implying that distinct regulatory programs control tissue specificity. In this study, we investigate gene expression and regulation across 38 tissues profiled in the Genotype-Tissue Expression project. We find that network edges (transcription factor to target gene connections) have higher tissue specificity than network nodes (genes) and that regulating nodes (transcription factors) are less likely to be expressed in a tissue-specific manner as compared to their targets (genes). Gene set enrichment analysis of network targeting also indicates that the regulation of tissue-specific function is largely independent of transcription factor expression. In addition, tissue-specific genes are not highly targeted in their corresponding tissue network. However, they do assume bottleneck positions due to variability in transcription factor targeting and the influence of non-canonical regulatory interactions. These results suggest that tissue specificity is driven by context-dependent regulatory paths, providing transcriptional control of tissue-specific processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abhijeet Rajendra Sonawane
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - John Platig
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Maud Fagny
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Cho-Yi Chen
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Joseph Nathaniel Paulson
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Camila Miranda Lopes-Ramos
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Dawn Lisa DeMeo
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
| | - Marieke Lydia Kuijjer
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
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18
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Paulson JN, Chen CY, Lopes-Ramos CM, Kuijjer ML, Platig J, Sonawane AR, Fagny M, Glass K, Quackenbush J. Tissue-aware RNA-Seq processing and normalization for heterogeneous and sparse data. BMC Bioinformatics 2017; 18:437. [PMID: 28974199 PMCID: PMC5627434 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-017-1847-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2017] [Accepted: 09/21/2017] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Although ultrahigh-throughput RNA-Sequencing has become the dominant technology for genome-wide transcriptional profiling, the vast majority of RNA-Seq studies typically profile only tens of samples, and most analytical pipelines are optimized for these smaller studies. However, projects are generating ever-larger data sets comprising RNA-Seq data from hundreds or thousands of samples, often collected at multiple centers and from diverse tissues. These complex data sets present significant analytical challenges due to batch and tissue effects, but provide the opportunity to revisit the assumptions and methods that we use to preprocess, normalize, and filter RNA-Seq data - critical first steps for any subsequent analysis. RESULTS We find that analysis of large RNA-Seq data sets requires both careful quality control and the need to account for sparsity due to the heterogeneity intrinsic in multi-group studies. We developed Yet Another RNA Normalization software pipeline (YARN), that includes quality control and preprocessing, gene filtering, and normalization steps designed to facilitate downstream analysis of large, heterogeneous RNA-Seq data sets and we demonstrate its use with data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project. CONCLUSIONS An R package instantiating YARN is available at http://bioconductor.org/packages/yarn .
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph N. Paulson
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Present address: Genentech, Department of Biostatistics, Product Development, 1 DNA Way, South San Francisco, CA 94080 USA
| | - Cho-Yi Chen
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215 USA
| | - Camila M. Lopes-Ramos
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215 USA
| | - Marieke L. Kuijjer
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215 USA
| | - John Platig
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215 USA
| | - Abhijeet R. Sonawane
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215 USA
| | - Maud Fagny
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215 USA
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215 USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215 USA
- Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
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19
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Fagny M, Paulson JN, Kuijjer ML, Sonawane AR, Chen CY, Lopes-Ramos CM, Glass K, Quackenbush J, Platig J. Exploring regulation in tissues with eQTL networks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2017; 114:E7841-E7850. [PMID: 28851834 PMCID: PMC5604022 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1707375114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
Characterizing the collective regulatory impact of genetic variants on complex phenotypes is a major challenge in developing a genotype to phenotype map. Using expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analyses, we constructed bipartite networks in which edges represent significant associations between genetic variants and gene expression levels and found that the network structure informs regulatory function. We show, in 13 tissues, that these eQTL networks are organized into dense, highly modular communities grouping genes often involved in coherent biological processes. We find communities representing shared processes across tissues, as well as communities associated with tissue-specific processes that coalesce around variants in tissue-specific active chromatin regions. Node centrality is also highly informative, with the global and community hubs differing in regulatory potential and likelihood of being disease associated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maud Fagny
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Joseph N Paulson
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Marieke L Kuijjer
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Abhijeet R Sonawane
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School Boston, MA 02115
| | - Cho-Yi Chen
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Camila M Lopes-Ramos
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School Boston, MA 02115
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115;
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
- Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115
| | - John Platig
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115;
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115
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20
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Lopes-Ramos CM, Paulson JN, Chen CY, Kuijjer ML, Fagny M, Platig J, Sonawane AR, DeMeo DL, Quackenbush J, Glass K. Regulatory network changes between cell lines and their tissues of origin. BMC Genomics 2017; 18:723. [PMID: 28899340 PMCID: PMC5596945 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-017-4111-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2017] [Accepted: 09/01/2017] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Cell lines are an indispensable tool in biomedical research and often used as surrogates for tissues. Although there are recognized important cellular and transcriptomic differences between cell lines and tissues, a systematic overview of the differences between the regulatory processes of a cell line and those of its tissue of origin has not been conducted. The RNA-Seq data generated by the GTEx project is the first available data resource in which it is possible to perform a large-scale transcriptional and regulatory network analysis comparing cell lines with their tissues of origin. RESULTS We compared 127 paired Epstein-Barr virus transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) and whole blood samples, and 244 paired primary fibroblast cell lines and skin samples. While gene expression analysis confirms that these cell lines carry the expression signatures of their primary tissues, albeit at reduced levels, network analysis indicates that expression changes are the cumulative result of many previously unreported alterations in transcription factor (TF) regulation. More specifically, cell cycle genes are over-expressed in cell lines compared to primary tissues, and this alteration in expression is a result of less repressive TF targeting. We confirmed these regulatory changes for four TFs, including SMAD5, using independent ChIP-seq data from ENCODE. CONCLUSIONS Our results provide novel insights into the regulatory mechanisms controlling the expression differences between cell lines and tissues. The strong changes in TF regulation that we observe suggest that network changes, in addition to transcriptional levels, should be considered when using cell lines as models for tissues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Camila M. Lopes-Ramos
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA
| | - Joseph N. Paulson
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA
| | - Cho-Yi Chen
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA
| | - Marieke L. Kuijjer
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA
| | - Maud Fagny
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA
| | - John Platig
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA
| | - Abhijeet R. Sonawane
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
| | - Dawn L. DeMeo
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA USA
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02215 USA
| | - Kimberly Glass
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA USA
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA USA
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA USA
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21
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Abstract
Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) analyses have identified genetic associations with a wide range of human phenotypes. However, many of these variants have weak effects and understanding their combined effect remains a challenge. One hypothesis is that multiple SNPs interact in complex networks to influence functional processes that ultimately lead to complex phenotypes, including disease states. Here we present CONDOR, a method that represents both cis- and trans-acting SNPs and the genes with which they are associated as a bipartite graph and then uses the modular structure of that graph to place SNPs into a functional context. In applying CONDOR to eQTLs in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), we found the global network “hub” SNPs were devoid of disease associations through GWAS. However, the network was organized into 52 communities of SNPs and genes, many of which were enriched for genes in specific functional classes. We identified local hubs within each community (“core SNPs”) and these were enriched for GWAS SNPs for COPD and many other diseases. These results speak to our intuition: rather than single SNPs influencing single genes, we see groups of SNPs associated with the expression of families of functionally related genes and that disease SNPs are associated with the perturbation of those functions. These methods are not limited in their application to COPD and can be used in the analysis of a wide variety of disease processes and other phenotypic traits. Large-scale studies have identified thousands of genetic variants associated with different phenotypes without explaining their function. Expression quantitative trait locus analysis associates the compendium of genetic variants with expression levels of individual genes, providing the opportunity to link those variants to functions. But the complexity of those associations has caused most analyses to focus solely on genetic variants immediately adjacent to the genes they may influence. We describe a method that embraces the complexity, representing all variant-gene associations as a bipartite graph. The graph contains highly modular, functional communities in which disease-associated variants emerge as those likely to perturb the structure of the network and the function of the genes in these communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Platig
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- * E-mail:
| | - Peter J. Castaldi
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of General Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Dawn DeMeo
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - John Quackenbush
- Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Department of Biostatistics, Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
- Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
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22
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Platig J, Ott E, Girvan M. Robustness of network measures to link errors. Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys 2013; 88:062812. [PMID: 24483516 DOI: 10.1103/physreve.88.062812] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/28/2013] [Indexed: 06/03/2023]
Abstract
In various applications involving complex networks, network measures are employed to assess the relative importance of network nodes. However, the robustness of such measures in the presence of link inaccuracies has not been well characterized. Here we present two simple stochastic models of false and missing links and study the effect of link errors on three commonly used node centrality measures: degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and dynamical importance. We perform numerical simulations to assess robustness of these three centrality measures. We also develop an analytical theory, which we compare with our simulations, obtaining very good agreement.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Platig
- Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA and Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA and Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
| | - E Ott
- Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - M Girvan
- Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
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23
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Yang Y, Shaffer AL, Emre NT, Ceribelli M, Zhang M, Wright G, Xiao W, Powell J, Platig J, Kohlhammer H, Young RM, Zhao H, Yang Y, Xu W, Buggy JJ, Balasubramanian S, Mathews LA, Shinn P, Guha R, Ferrer M, Thomas C, Waldmann TA, Staudt LM. Exploiting synthetic lethality for the therapy of ABC diffuse large B cell lymphoma. Cancer Cell 2012; 21:723-37. [PMID: 22698399 PMCID: PMC4059833 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2012.05.024] [Citation(s) in RCA: 396] [Impact Index Per Article: 33.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2011] [Revised: 03/13/2012] [Accepted: 05/22/2012] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Knowledge of oncogenic mutations can inspire therapeutic strategies that are synthetically lethal, affecting cancer cells while sparing normal cells. Lenalidomide is an active agent in the activated B cell-like (ABC) subtype of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), but its mechanism of action is unknown. Lenalidomide kills ABC DLBCL cells by augmenting interferon β (IFNβ) production, owing to the oncogenic MYD88 mutations in these lymphomas. In a cereblon-dependent fashion, lenalidomide downregulates IRF4 and SPIB, transcription factors that together prevent IFNβ production by repressing IRF7 and amplify prosurvival NF-κB signaling by transactivating CARD11. Blockade of B cell receptor signaling using the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib also downregulates IRF4 and consequently synergizes with lenalidomide in killing ABC DLBCLs, suggesting attractive therapeutic strategies.
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MESH Headings
- Adaptor Proteins, Signal Transducing
- Adenine/analogs & derivatives
- Animals
- Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use
- Blotting, Western
- Cell Line, Tumor
- DNA-Binding Proteins/genetics
- DNA-Binding Proteins/metabolism
- Female
- Gene Expression Profiling
- Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic/drug effects
- Gene Regulatory Networks/drug effects
- Humans
- Interferon Regulatory Factors/genetics
- Interferon Regulatory Factors/metabolism
- Interferon-beta/genetics
- Interferon-beta/metabolism
- Interferon-beta/pharmacology
- Lenalidomide
- Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse/drug therapy
- Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse/genetics
- Lymphoma, Large B-Cell, Diffuse/pathology
- Mice
- Mice, Inbred NOD
- Mice, SCID
- NF-kappa B/genetics
- NF-kappa B/metabolism
- Peptide Hydrolases/genetics
- Peptide Hydrolases/metabolism
- Piperidines
- Pyrazoles/administration & dosage
- Pyrimidines/administration & dosage
- RNA Interference
- Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
- Signal Transduction/drug effects
- Thalidomide/administration & dosage
- Thalidomide/analogs & derivatives
- Transcription Factors/genetics
- Transcription Factors/metabolism
- Tumor Burden/drug effects
- Tumor Burden/genetics
- Ubiquitin-Protein Ligases
- Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
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Affiliation(s)
- Yibin Yang
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Arthur L. Shaffer
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - N.C. Tolga Emre
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Michele Ceribelli
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Meili Zhang
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - George Wright
- Biometric Research Branch, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA
| | - Wenming Xiao
- Bioinformatics and Molecular Analysis Section, Division of Computational Bioscience, Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - John Powell
- Bioinformatics and Molecular Analysis Section, Division of Computational Bioscience, Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - John Platig
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
- University of Maryland, Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics. College Park, MD, USA
| | - Holger Kohlhammer
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Ryan M. Young
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Hong Zhao
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Yandan Yang
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Weihong Xu
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | | | | | - Lesley A. Mathews
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Paul Shinn
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Rajarshi Guha
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Marc Ferrer
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Craig Thomas
- National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Thomas A. Waldmann
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Louis M. Staudt
- Metabolism Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
- Corresponding author: Louis M. Staudt, MD, PhD, 9000 Rockville Pike, Building 10, Room 4N114, Bethesda, MD 20892, 301-402-1892, Fax: 301-496-9956,
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24
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Antonsen TM, Faghih RT, Girvan M, Ott E, Platig J. External periodic driving of large systems of globally coupled phase oscillators. Chaos 2008; 18:037112. [PMID: 19045486 DOI: 10.1063/1.2952447] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/08/2023]
Abstract
Large systems of coupled oscillators subjected to a periodic external drive occur in many situations in physics and biology. Here the simple paradigmatic case of equal strength, all-to-all sine coupling of phase oscillators subject to a sinusoidal external drive, is considered. The stationary states and their stability are determined. Using the stability information and numerical experiments, parameter space phase diagrams showing when different types of system behavior apply are constructed, and the bifurcations marking transitions between different types of behavior are delineated. The analysis is supported by results of direct numerical simulation of an ensemble of oscillators.
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Affiliation(s)
- T M Antonsen
- Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
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