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Flynn ED, Tsu AL, Kasela S, Kim-Hellmuth S, Aguet F, Ardlie KG, Bussemaker HJ, Mohammadi P, Lappalainen T. Transcription factor regulation of eQTL activity across individuals and tissues. PLoS Genet 2022; 18:e1009719. [PMID: 35100260 PMCID: PMC8830792 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2021] [Revised: 02/10/2022] [Accepted: 01/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Tens of thousands of genetic variants associated with gene expression (cis-eQTLs) have been discovered in the human population. These eQTLs are active in various tissues and contexts, but the molecular mechanisms of eQTL variability are poorly understood, hindering our understanding of genetic regulation across biological contexts. Since many eQTLs are believed to act by altering transcription factor (TF) binding affinity, we hypothesized that analyzing eQTL effect size as a function of TF level may allow discovery of mechanisms of eQTL variability. Using GTEx Consortium eQTL data from 49 tissues, we analyzed the interaction between eQTL effect size and TF level across tissues and across individuals within specific tissues and generated a list of 10,098 TF-eQTL interactions across 2,136 genes that are supported by at least two lines of evidence. These TF-eQTLs were enriched for various TF binding measures, supporting with orthogonal evidence that these eQTLs are regulated by the implicated TFs. We also found that our TF-eQTLs tend to overlap genes with gene-by-environment regulatory effects and to colocalize with GWAS loci, implying that our approach can help to elucidate mechanisms of context-specificity and trait associations. Finally, we highlight an interesting example of IKZF1 TF regulation of an APBB1IP gene eQTL that colocalizes with a GWAS signal for blood cell traits. Together, our findings provide candidate TF mechanisms for a large number of eQTLs and offer a generalizable approach for researchers to discover TF regulators of genetic variant effects in additional QTL datasets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elise D. Flynn
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
- New York Genome Center, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Athena L. Tsu
- New York Genome Center, New York, New York, United States of America
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Silva Kasela
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
- New York Genome Center, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Sarah Kim-Hellmuth
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
- New York Genome Center, New York, New York, United States of America
- Department of Pediatrics, Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Francois Aguet
- The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Kristin G. Ardlie
- The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Harmen J. Bussemaker
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
| | - Pejman Mohammadi
- Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America
- Scripps Translational Science Institute, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America
- * E-mail: (PM); (TL)
| | - Tuuli Lappalainen
- Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University, New York, New York, United States of America
- New York Genome Center, New York, New York, United States of America
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
- * E-mail: (PM); (TL)
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52
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Huang D, Zhou Y, Yi X, Fan X, Wang J, Yao H, Sham PC, Hao J, Chen K, Li MJ. VannoPortal: multiscale functional annotation of human genetic variants for interrogating molecular mechanism of traits and diseases. Nucleic Acids Res 2021; 50:D1408-D1416. [PMID: 34570217 PMCID: PMC8728305 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2021] [Revised: 09/05/2021] [Accepted: 09/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Interpreting the molecular mechanism of genomic variations and their causal relationship with diseases/traits are important and challenging problems in the human genetic study. To provide comprehensive and context-specific variant annotations for biologists and clinicians, here, by systematically integrating over 4TB genomic/epigenomic profiles and frequently-used annotation databases from various biological domains, we develop a variant annotation database, called VannoPortal. In general, the database has following major features: (i) systematically integrates 40 genome-wide variant annotations and prediction scores regarding allele frequency, linkage disequilibrium, evolutionary signature, disease/trait association, tissue/cell type-specific epigenome, base-wise functional prediction, allelic imbalance and pathogenicity; (ii) equips with our recent novel index system and parallel random-sweep searching algorithms for efficient management of backend databases and information extraction; (iii) greatly expands context-dependent variant annotation to incorporate large-scale epigenomic maps and regulatory profiles (such as EpiMap) across over 33 tissue/cell types; (iv) compiles many genome-scale base-wise prediction scores for regulatory/pathogenic variant classification beyond protein-coding region; (v) enables fast retrieval and direct comparison of functional evidence among linked variants using highly interactive web panel in addition to plain table; (vi) introduces many visualization functions for more efficient identification and interpretation of functional variants in single web page. VannoPortal is freely available at http://mulinlab.org/vportal.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dandan Huang
- Department of Bioinformatics, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.,Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China
| | - Yao Zhou
- Department of Bioinformatics, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.,Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China
| | - Xianfu Yi
- School of Biomedical Engineering, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China
| | - Xutong Fan
- Department of Bioinformatics, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.,Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China
| | - Jianhua Wang
- Department of Bioinformatics, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.,Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China
| | - Hongcheng Yao
- Centre for PanorOmic Sciences-Genomics and Bioinformatics Cores, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
| | - Pak Chung Sham
- Centre for PanorOmic Sciences-Genomics and Bioinformatics Cores, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
| | - Jihui Hao
- Department of Pancreatic Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy, Tianjin's Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin 300060, China
| | - Kexin Chen
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Epidemiology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300060, China
| | - Mulin Jun Li
- Department of Bioinformatics, The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, School of Basic Medical Sciences, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.,Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.,Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Epidemiology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300060, China
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53
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Korbolina EE, Bryzgalov LO, Ustrokhanova DZ, Postovalov SN, Poverin DV, Damarov IS, Merkulova TI. A Panel of rSNPs Demonstrating Allelic Asymmetry in Both ChIP-seq and RNA-seq Data and the Search for Their Phenotypic Outcomes through Analysis of DEGs. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22147240. [PMID: 34298860 PMCID: PMC8303726 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22147240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2021] [Accepted: 06/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Currently, the detection of the allele asymmetry of gene expression from RNA-seq data or the transcription factor binding from ChIP-seq data is one of the approaches used to identify the functional genetic variants that can affect gene expression (regulatory SNPs or rSNPs). In this study, we searched for rSNPs using the data for human pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (PAECs) available from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA). Allele-asymmetric binding and expression events are analyzed in paired ChIP-seq data for H3K4me3 mark and RNA-seq data obtained for 19 individuals. Two statistical approaches, weighted z-scores and predicted probabilities, were used to improve the efficiency of finding rSNPs. In total, we identified 14,266 rSNPs associated with both allele-specific binding and expression. Among them, 645 rSNPs were associated with GWAS phenotypes; 4746 rSNPs were reported as eQTLs by GTEx, and 11,536 rSNPs were located in 374 candidate transcription factor binding motifs. Additionally, we searched for the rSNPs associated with gene expression using an SRA RNA-seq dataset for 281 clinically annotated human postmortem brain samples and detected eQTLs for 2505 rSNPs. Based on these results, we conducted Gene Ontology (GO), Disease Ontology (DO), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses and constructed the protein-protein interaction networks to represent the top-ranked biological processes with a possible contribution to the phenotypic outcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena E. Korbolina
- The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 10 LavrentyevaProspekt, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (L.O.B.); (I.S.D.); (T.I.M.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Leonid O. Bryzgalov
- The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 10 LavrentyevaProspekt, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (L.O.B.); (I.S.D.); (T.I.M.)
- VECTOR-BEST, PO BOX 492, 630117 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Diana Z. Ustrokhanova
- Department of Information Biology, The Novosibirsk State University, 1 Pirogovast, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia;
| | - Sergey N. Postovalov
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Informatics, The Novosibirsk State Technical University, 630073 Novosibirsk, Russia; (S.N.P.); (D.V.P.)
| | - Dmitry V. Poverin
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Informatics, The Novosibirsk State Technical University, 630073 Novosibirsk, Russia; (S.N.P.); (D.V.P.)
| | - Igor S. Damarov
- The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 10 LavrentyevaProspekt, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (L.O.B.); (I.S.D.); (T.I.M.)
| | - Tatiana I. Merkulova
- The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 10 LavrentyevaProspekt, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (L.O.B.); (I.S.D.); (T.I.M.)
- Department of Information Biology, The Novosibirsk State University, 1 Pirogovast, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia;
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54
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Ershova AS, Eliseeva IA, Nikonov OS, Fedorova AD, Vorontsov IE, Papatsenko D, Kulakovskiy IV. Enhanced C/EBP binding to G·T mismatches facilitates fixation of CpG mutations in cancer and adult stem cells. Cell Rep 2021; 35:109221. [PMID: 34107262 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109221] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2020] [Revised: 03/21/2021] [Accepted: 05/13/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Somatic mutations in regulatory sites of human stem cells affect cell identity or cause malignant transformation. By mining the human genome for co-occurrence of mutations and transcription factor binding sites, we show that C/EBP binding sites are strongly enriched with [C > T]G mutations in cancer and adult stem cells, which is of special interest because C/EBPs regulate cell fate and differentiation. In vitro protein-DNA binding assay and structural modeling of the CEBPB-DNA complex show that the G·T mismatch in the core CG dinucleotide strongly enhances affinity of the binding site. We conclude that enhanced binding of C/EBPs shields CpG·TpG mismatches from DNA repair, leading to selective accumulation of [C > T]G mutations and consequent deterioration of the binding sites. This mechanism of targeted mutagenesis highlights the effect of a mutational process on certain regulatory sites and reveals the molecular basis of putative regulatory alterations in stem cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna S Ershova
- Belozersky Institute of Physical and Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119992, Russia.
| | - Irina A Eliseeva
- Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino 142290, Russia
| | - Oleg S Nikonov
- Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino 142290, Russia
| | - Alla D Fedorova
- School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University College Cork, Cork T12 YN60, Ireland
| | - Ilya E Vorontsov
- Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino 142290, Russia; Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia
| | - Dmitry Papatsenko
- Center for Data-Intensive Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow 143026, Russia
| | - Ivan V Kulakovskiy
- Institute of Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino 142290, Russia; Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia; Center for Precision Genome Editing and Genetic Technologies for Biomedicine, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia.
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