Cell type-selective disease-association of genes under high regulatory load

in Nucleic Acids Research (2015), 43(18), 8839-8855

We previously showed that disease-linked metabolic genes are often under combinatorial regulation. Using the genome-wide ChIP-Seq binding profiles for 93 transcription factors in nine different cell lines ... [more ▼]

We previously showed that disease-linked metabolic genes are often under combinatorial regulation. Using the genome-wide ChIP-Seq binding profiles for 93 transcription factors in nine different cell lines, we show that genes under high regulatory load are significantly enriched for disease-association across cell types. We find that transcription factor load correlates with the enhancer load of the genes and thereby allows the identification of genes under high regulatory load by epigenomic mapping of active enhancers. Identification of the high enhancer load genes across 139 samples from 96 different cell and tissue types reveals a consistent enrichment for disease-associated genes in a cell type-selective manner. The underlying genes are not limited to super-enhancer genes and show several types of disease-association evidence beyond genetic variation (such as biomarkers). Interestingly, the high regulatory load genes are involved in more KEGG pathways than expected by chance, exhibit increased betweenness centrality in the interaction network of liver disease genes, and carry longer 3'UTRs with more microRNA (miRNA) binding sites than genes on average, suggesting a role as hubs integrating signals within regulatory networks. In summary, epigenetic mapping of active enhancers presents a promising and unbiased approach for identification of novel disease genes in a cell type-selective manner. [less ▲]

ChIP-seq profiling of the active chromatin marker H3K4me3 and PPARγ, CEBPα and LXR target genes in human SGBS adipocytes

in Genomics Data (2014), 2

Transcription factors (TFs) represent key factors to establish a cellular phenotype. It is known that several TFs could play a role in disease, yet less is known so far how their targets overlap. We ... [more ▼]

Transcription factors (TFs) represent key factors to establish a cellular phenotype. It is known that several TFs could play a role in disease, yet less is known so far how their targets overlap. We focused here on identifying the most highly induced TFs and their putative targets during human adipogenesis. Applying chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with deep sequencing (ChIP-Seq) in the human SGBS pre-adipocyte cell line, we identified genes with binding sites in their vicinity for the three TFs studied, PPARγ, CEBPα and LXR. Here we describe the experimental design and quality controls in detail for the deep sequencing data and related results published by Galhardo et al. in Nucleic Acids Research 2014 [1] associated with the data uploaded to NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (). [less ▲]

Integrated analysis of transcript-level regulation of metabolism reveals disease-relevant nodes of the human metabolic network

in Nucleic Acids Research (2013)

Metabolic diseases and comorbidities represent an ever-growing epidemic where multiple cell types impact tissue homeostasis. Here, the link between the metabolic and gene regulatory networks was studied ... [more ▼]

Metabolic diseases and comorbidities represent an ever-growing epidemic where multiple cell types impact tissue homeostasis. Here, the link between the metabolic and gene regulatory networks was studied through experimental and computational analysis. Integrating gene regulation data with a human metabolic network prompted the establishment of an open-sourced web portal, IDARE (Integrated Data Nodes of Regulation), for visualizing various gene-related data in context of metabolic pathways. Motivated by increasing availability of deep sequencing studies, we obtained ChIP-seq data from widely studied human umbilical vein endothelial cells. Interestingly, we found that association of metabolic genes with multiple transcription factors (TFs) enriched disease-associated genes. To demonstrate further extensions enabled by examining these networks together, constraintbased modeling was applied to data from human preadipocyte differentiation. In parallel, data on gene expression, genome-wide ChIP-seq profiles for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) c, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (CEBP) a, liver X receptor (LXR) and H3K4me3 and microRNA target identification for miR-27a, miR-29a and miR-222 were collected. Disease-relevant key nodes, including mitochondrial glycerol-phosphateacyltransferase (GPAM), were exposed from metabolic pathways predicted to change activity by focusing on association with multiple regulators. In both cell types, our analysis reveals the convergence of microRNAs and TFs within the branched chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolic pathway, possibly providing an explanation for its downregulation in obese and diabetic conditions. [less ▲]