scholarly journals Gene Networks and Pathways for Plasma Lipid Traits via Multi-tissue Multi-omics Systems Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Montgomery Blencowe ◽  
In Sook Ahn ◽  
Zara Saleem ◽  
Helen Luk ◽  
Ingrid Cely ◽  
...  

AbstractGenome-wide association studies (GWAS) have implicated ∼380 genetic loci for plasma lipid regulation. However, these loci only explain 17-27% of the trait variance and a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms has not been achieved. In this study, we utilized an integrative genomics approach leveraging diverse genomic data from human populations to investigate whether genetic variants associated with various plasma lipid traits, namely total cholesterol (TC), high and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL and LDL), and triglycerides (TG), from GWAS were concentrated on specific parts of tissue-specific gene regulatory networks. In addition to the expected lipid metabolism pathways, gene subnetworks involved in ‘interferon signaling’, ‘autoimmune/immune activation’, ‘visual transduction’, and ‘protein catabolism’ were significantly associated with all lipid traits. Additionally, we detected trait-specific subnetworks, including cadherin-associated subnetworks for LDL, glutathione metabolism for HDL, valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis for TC, and insulin signaling and complement pathways for TG. Finally, utilizing gene-gene relations revealed by tissue-specific gene regulatory networks, we detected both known (e.g. APOH, APOA4, and ABCA1) and novel (e.g. F2 in adipose tissue) key regulator genes in these lipid-associated subnetworks. Knockdown of the F2 gene (Coagulation Factor II, Thrombin) in 3T3-L1 and C3H10T1/2 adipocytes reduced gene expression of Abcb11, Apoa5, Apof, Fabp1, Lipc, and Cd36, reduced intracellular adipocyte lipid content, and increased extracellular lipid content, supporting a link between adipose thrombin and lipid regulation. Our results shed light on the complex mechanisms underlying lipid metabolism and highlight potential novel targets for lipid regulation and lipid-associated diseases.

2020 ◽  
pp. jlr.RA120000713
Author(s):  
Montgomery Blencowe ◽  
In Sook Ahn ◽  
Zara Saleem ◽  
Helen Luk ◽  
Ingrid Cely ◽  
...  

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have implicated ~380 genetic loci for plasma lipid regulation. However, these loci only explain 17-27% of the trait variance and a comprehensive understanding of the molecular mechanisms has not been achieved. In this study, we utilized an integrative genomics approach leveraging diverse genomic data from human populations to investigate whether genetic variants associated with various plasma lipid traits, namely total cholesterol (TC), high and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL and LDL), and triglycerides (TG), from GWAS were concentrated on specific parts of tissue-specific gene regulatory networks. In addition to the expected lipid metabolism pathways, gene subnetworks involved in ‘interferon signaling’, ‘autoimmune/immune activation’, ‘visual transduction’, and ‘protein catabolism’ were significantly associated with all lipid traits. Additionally, we detected trait-specific subnetworks, including cadherin-associated subnetworks for LDL, glutathione metabolism for HDL, valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis for TC, and insulin signaling and complement pathways for TG. Finally, utilizing gene-gene relations revealed by tissue-specific gene regulatory networks, we detected both known (e.g. APOH, APOA4, and ABCA1) and novel (e.g. F2 in adipose tissue) key regulator genes in these lipid-associated subnetworks. Knockdown of the F2 gene (Coagulation Factor II, Thrombin) in 3T3-L1 and C3H10T1/2 adipocytes reduced gene expression of Abcb11, Apoa5, Apof, Fabp1, Lipc, and Cd36, reduced intracellular adipocyte lipid content, and increased extracellular lipid content, supporting a link between adipose thrombin and lipid regulation. Our results shed light on the complex mechanisms underlying lipid metabolism and highlight potential novel targets for lipid regulation and lipid-associated diseases.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Pierson ◽  
GTEx Consortium ◽  
Daphne Koller ◽  
Alexis Battle ◽  
Sara Mostafavi

To understand the regulation of tissue-specific gene expression, the GTEx Consortium generated RNA-seq expression data for more than thirty distinct human tissues. This data provides an opportunity for deriving shared and tissue-specific gene regulatory networks on the basis of co-expression between genes. However, a small number of samples are available for a majority of the tissues, and therefore statistical inference of networks in this setting is highly underpowered. To address this problem, we infer tissue-specific gene co-expression networks for 35 tissues in the GTEx dataset using a novel algorithm, GNAT, that uses a hierarchy of tissues to share data between related tissues. We show that this transfer learning approach increases the accuracy with which networks are learned. Analysis of these networks reveals that tissue-specific transcription factors are hubs that preferentially connect to genes with tissue-specific functions. Additionally, we observe that genes with tissue-specific functions lie at the peripheries of our networks. We identify numerous modules enriched for Gene Ontology functions, and show that modules conserved across tissues are especially likely to have functions common to all tissues, while modules that are upregulated in a particular tissue are often instrumental to tissue-specific function. Finally, we provide a web tool, available at mostafavilab.stat.ubc.ca/GNAT, which allows exploration of gene function and regulation in a tissue-specific manner.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heewon Park ◽  
Teppei Shimamura ◽  
Seiya Imoto ◽  
Satoru Miyano

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Zhou ◽  
Xiaodong Cai

Abstract Motivation Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) of the same organism can be different under different conditions, although the overall network structure may be similar. Understanding the difference in GRNs under different conditions is important to understand condition-specific gene regulation. When gene expression and other relevant data under two different conditions are available, they can be used by an existing network inference algorithm to estimate two GRNs separately, and then to identify the difference between the two GRNs. However, such an approach does not exploit the similarity in two GRNs, and may sacrifice inference accuracy. Results In this paper, we model GRNs with the structural equation model (SEM) that can integrate gene expression and genetic perturbation data, and develop an algorithm named fused sparse SEM (FSSEM), to jointly infer GRNs under two conditions, and then to identify difference of the two GRNs. Computer simulations demonstrate that the FSSEM algorithm outperforms the approaches that estimate two GRNs separately. Analysis of a dataset of lung cancer and another dataset of gastric cancer with FSSEM inferred differential GRNs in cancer versus normal tissues, whose genes with largest network degrees have been reported to be implicated in tumorigenesis. The FSSEM algorithm provides a valuable tool for joint inference of two GRNs and identification of the differential GRN under two conditions. Availability and implementation The R package fssemR implementing the FSSEM algorithm is available at https://github.com/Ivis4ml/fssemR.git. It is also available on CRAN. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (05) ◽  
pp. 2050029
Author(s):  
Xiao Yu ◽  
Tongfeng Weng ◽  
Changgui Gu ◽  
Huijie Yang

Lymphoma is the most complicated cancer that can be divided into several tens of subtypes. It may occur in any part of body that has lymphocytes, and is closely correlated with diverse environmental factors such as the ionizing radiation, chemocarcinogenesis, and virus infection. All the environmental factors affect the lymphoma through genes. Identifying pathogenic genes for lymphoma is consequently an essential task to understand its complexity in a unified framework. In this paper, we propose a new method to expose high-confident edges in gene regulatory networks (GRNs) for a total of 32 organs, called Filtered GRNs (f-GRNs), comparison of which gives us a proper reference for the Lymphoma, i.e. the B-lymphocytes cells, whose f-GRN is closest with that for the Lymphoma. By using the Gene Ontology and Biological Process analysis we display the differences of the two networks’ hubs in biological functions. Matching with the Genecards shows that most of the hubs take part in the genetic information transmission and expression, except a specific gene of Retinoic Acid Receptor Alpha (RARA) that encodes the retinoic acid receptor. In the lymphoma, the genes in the RARA ego-network are involved in two cancer pathways, and the RARA is present only in these cancer pathways. For the lymphoid B cells, however, the genes in the RARA ego-network do not participate in cancer-related pathways.


2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geert Geeven ◽  
Ronald E. van Kesteren ◽  
August B. Smit ◽  
Mathisca C. M. de Gunst

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimple Chudasama ◽  
Valeria Bo ◽  
Marcia Hall ◽  
Vladimir Anikin ◽  
Jeyarooban Jeyaneethi ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Weighill ◽  
Marouen Ben Guebila ◽  
Kimberly Glass ◽  
John Quackenbush ◽  
John Platig

AbstractThe majority of disease-associated genetic variants are thought to have regulatory effects, including the disruption of transcription factor (TF) binding and the alteration of downstream gene expression. Identifying how a person’s genotype affects their individual gene regulatory network has the potential to provide important insights into disease etiology and to enable improved genotype-specific disease risk assessments and treatments. However, the impact of genetic variants is generally not considered when constructing gene regulatory networks. To address this unmet need, we developed EGRET (Estimating the Genetic Regulatory Effect on TFs), which infers a genotype-specific gene regulatory network (GRN) for each individual in a study population by using message passing to integrate genotype-informed TF motif predictions - derived from individual genotype data, the predicted effects of variants on TF binding and gene expression, and TF motif predictions - with TF protein-protein interactions and gene expression. Comparing EGRET networks for two blood-derived cell lines identified genotype-associated cell-line specific regulatory differences which were subsequently validated using allele-specific expression, chromatin accessibility QTLs, and differential TF binding from ChIP-seq. In addition, EGRET GRNs for three cell types across 119 individuals captured regulatory differences associated with disease in a cell-type-specific manner. Our analyses demonstrate that EGRET networks can capture the impact of genetic variants on complex phenotypes, supporting a novel fine-scale stratification of individuals based on their genetic background. EGRET is available through the Network Zoo R package (netZooR v0.9; netzoo.github.io).


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