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Burnham KL, Milind N, Lee W, Kwok AJ, Cano-Gamez K, Mi Y, Geoghegan CG, Zhang P, McKechnie S, Soranzo N, Hinds CJ, Knight JC, Davenport EE. eQTLs identify regulatory networks and drivers of variation in the individual response to sepsis. CELL GENOMICS 2024; 4:100587. [PMID: 38897207 PMCID: PMC11293594 DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2024.100587] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2023] [Revised: 03/27/2024] [Accepted: 05/28/2024] [Indexed: 06/21/2024]
Abstract
Sepsis is a clinical syndrome of life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated response to infection, for which disease heterogeneity is a major obstacle to developing targeted treatments. We have previously identified gene-expression-based patient subgroups (sepsis response signatures [SRS]) informative for outcome and underlying pathophysiology. Here, we aimed to investigate the role of genetic variation in determining the host transcriptomic response and to delineate regulatory networks underlying SRS. Using genotyping and RNA-sequencing data on 638 adult sepsis patients, we report 16,049 independent expression (eQTLs) and 32 co-expression module (modQTLs) quantitative trait loci in this disease context. We identified significant interactions between SRS and genotype for 1,578 SNP-gene pairs and combined transcription factor (TF) binding site information (SNP2TFBS) and predicted regulon activity (DoRothEA) to identify candidate upstream regulators. Overall, these approaches identified putative mechanistic links between host genetic variation, cell subtypes, and the individual transcriptomic response to infection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie L Burnham
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
| | - Nikhil Milind
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK; University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Wanseon Lee
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
| | - Andrew J Kwok
- Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Kiki Cano-Gamez
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK; Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Yuxin Mi
- Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Ping Zhang
- Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Chinese Academy of Medical Science Oxford Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Nicole Soranzo
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK
| | - Charles J Hinds
- Centre for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, William Harvey Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
| | - Julian C Knight
- Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Chinese Academy of Medical Science Oxford Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
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High-throughput approaches to functional characterization of genetic variation in yeast. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2022; 76:101979. [PMID: 36075138 DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2022.101979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2022] [Revised: 07/29/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Expansion of sequencing efforts to include thousands of genomes is providing a fundamental resource for determining the genetic diversity that exists in a population. Now, high-throughput approaches are necessary to begin to understand the role these genotypic changes play in affecting phenotypic variation. Saccharomyces cerevisiae maintains its position as an excellent model system to determine the function of unknown variants with its exceptional genetic diversity, phenotypic diversity, and reliable genetic manipulation tools. Here, we review strategies and techniques developed in yeast that scale classic approaches of assessing variant function. These approaches improve our ability to better map quantitative trait loci at a higher resolution, even for rare variants, and are already providing greater insight into the role that different types of mutations play in phenotypic variation and evolution not just in yeast but across taxa.
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