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Zhou M, Tamburini I, Van C, Molendijk J, Nguyen CM, Chang IYY, Johnson C, Velez LM, Cheon Y, Yeo R, Bae H, Le J, Larson N, Pulido R, Nascimento-Filho CHV, Jang C, Marazzi I, Justice J, Pannunzio N, Hevener AL, Sparks L, Kershaw EE, Nicholas D, Parker BL, Masri S, Seldin MM. Leveraging inter-individual transcriptional correlation structure to infer discrete signaling mechanisms across metabolic tissues. eLife 2024; 12:RP88863. [PMID: 38224289 PMCID: PMC10945578 DOI: 10.7554/elife.88863] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2024] Open
Abstract
Inter-organ communication is a vital process to maintain physiologic homeostasis, and its dysregulation contributes to many human diseases. Given that circulating bioactive factors are stable in serum, occur naturally, and are easily assayed from blood, they present obvious focal molecules for therapeutic intervention and biomarker development. Recently, studies have shown that secreted proteins mediating inter-tissue signaling could be identified by 'brute force' surveys of all genes within RNA-sequencing measures across tissues within a population. Expanding on this intuition, we reasoned that parallel strategies could be used to understand how individual genes mediate signaling across metabolic tissues through correlative analyses of gene variation between individuals. Thus, comparison of quantitative levels of gene expression relationships between organs in a population could aid in understanding cross-organ signaling. Here, we surveyed gene-gene correlation structure across 18 metabolic tissues in 310 human individuals and 7 tissues in 103 diverse strains of mice fed a normal chow or high-fat/high-sucrose (HFHS) diet. Variation of genes such as FGF21, ADIPOQ, GCG, and IL6 showed enrichments which recapitulate experimental observations. Further, similar analyses were applied to explore both within-tissue signaling mechanisms (liver PCSK9) and genes encoding enzymes producing metabolites (adipose PNPLA2), where inter-individual correlation structure aligned with known roles for these critical metabolic pathways. Examination of sex hormone receptor correlations in mice highlighted the difference of tissue-specific variation in relationships with metabolic traits. We refer to this resource as gene-derived correlations across tissues (GD-CAT) where all tools and data are built into a web portal enabling users to perform these analyses without a single line of code (gdcat.org). This resource enables querying of any gene in any tissue to find correlated patterns of genes, cell types, pathways, and network architectures across metabolic organs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingqi Zhou
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Ian Tamburini
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Cassandra Van
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Jeffrey Molendijk
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of MelbourneMelbourneAustralia
| | - Christy M Nguyen
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | | | - Casey Johnson
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Leandro M Velez
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Youngseo Cheon
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Reichelle Yeo
- Translational Research Institute, AdventHealthOrlandoUnited States
| | - Hosung Bae
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Johnny Le
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Natalie Larson
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Ron Pulido
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Carlos HV Nascimento-Filho
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Cholsoon Jang
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Ivan Marazzi
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Jamie Justice
- Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC)Los AngelesUnited States
| | - Nicholas Pannunzio
- Divison of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, UC Irvine HealthIrvineUnited States
| | - Andrea L Hevener
- Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLALos AngelesUnited States
- Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLALos AngelesUnited States
| | - Lauren Sparks
- Translational Research Institute, AdventHealthOrlandoUnited States
| | - Erin E Kershaw
- Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, University of PittsburgPittsburghUnited States
| | - Dequina Nicholas
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences, University of California IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Benjamin L Parker
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of MelbourneMelbourneAustralia
| | - Selma Masri
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
| | - Marcus M Seldin
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC IrvineIrvineUnited States
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Zhou M, Tamburini IJ, Van C, Molendijk J, Nguyen CM, Chang IYY, Johnson C, Velez LM, Cheon Y, Yeo RX, Bae H, Le J, Larson N, Pulido R, Filho C, Jang C, Marazzi I, Justice JN, Pannunzio N, Hevener A, Sparks LM, Kershaw EE, Nicholas D, Parker B, Masri S, Seldin M. Leveraging inter-individual transcriptional correlation structure to infer discrete signaling mechanisms across metabolic tissues. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.10.540142. [PMID: 37214953 PMCID: PMC10197628 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.10.540142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Abstract/IntroductionInter-organ communication is a vital process to maintain physiologic homeostasis, and its dysregulation contributes to many human diseases. Beginning with the discovery of insulin over a century ago, characterization of molecules responsible for signal between tissues has required careful and elegant experimentation where these observations have been integral to deciphering physiology and disease. Given that circulating bioactive factors are stable in serum, occur naturally, and are easily assayed from blood, they present obvious focal molecules for therapeutic intervention and biomarker development. For example, physiologic dissection of the actions of soluble proteins such as proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP1) have yielded among the most promising therapeutics to treat cardiovascular disease and obesity, respectively1–4. A major obstacle in the characterization of such soluble factors is that defining their tissues and pathways of action requires extensive experimental testing in cells and animal models. Recently, studies have shown that secreted proteins mediating inter-tissue signaling could be identified by “brute-force” surveys of all genes within RNA-sequencing measures across tissues within a population5–9. Expanding on this intuition, we reasoned that parallel strategies could be used to understand how individual genes mediate signaling across metabolic tissues through correlative analyses of gene variation between individuals. Thus, comparison of quantitative levels of gene expression relationships between organs in a population could aid in understanding cross-organ signaling. Here, we surveyed gene-gene correlation structure across 18 metabolic tissues in 310 human individuals and 7 tissues in 103 diverse strains of mice fed a normal chow or HFHS diet. Variation of genes such asFGF21, ADIPOQ, GCGandIL6showed enrichments which recapitulate experimental observations. Further, similar analyses were applied to explore both within-tissue signaling mechanisms (liverPCSK9) as well as genes encoding enzymes producing metabolites (adiposePNPLA2), where inter-individual correlation structure aligned with known roles for these critical metabolic pathways. Examination of sex hormone receptor correlations in mice highlighted the difference of tissue-specific variation in relationships with metabolic traits. We refer to this resource asGene-DerivedCorrelationsAcrossTissues (GD-CAT) where all tools and data are built into a web portal enabling users to perform these analyses without a single line of code (gdcat.org). This resource enables querying of any gene in any tissue to find correlated patterns of genes, cell types, pathways and network architectures across metabolic organs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingqi Zhou
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Ian J. Tamburini
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Cassandra Van
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Jeffrey Molendijk
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Christy M Nguyen
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | | | - Casey Johnson
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Leandro M. Velez
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Youngseo Cheon
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Reichelle X. Yeo
- Translational Research Institute, AdventHealth, Orlando, FL, USA
| | - Hosung Bae
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Johnny Le
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Natalie Larson
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Ron Pulido
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Carlos Filho
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Cholsoon Jang
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Ivan Marazzi
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Jamie N. Justice
- Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Nicholas Pannunzio
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Andrea Hevener
- Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Hypertension, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Lauren M. Sparks
- Translational Research Institute, AdventHealth, Orlando, FL, USA
| | - Erin E. Kershaw
- Department of Internal Medicine, Section On Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
| | - Dequina Nicholas
- Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Benjamin Parker
- Department of Anatomy and Physiology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Selma Masri
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
- Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Marcus Seldin
- Department of Biological Chemistry, UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, USA
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