Does GATA3 act in tissue-specific pathways? A meta-analysis-based approach.

The GATA3 transcription factor is expressed in many tissues such as the immune system, kidney, brain, endometrium, and mammary epithelial cells. As such it must co-ordinate a diverse transcriptional program to achieve specific outcomes in different tissues. One of the most interesting questions raised is whether GATA3 will be involved in the same pathways in every tissue or will be involved in distinct regulatory networks within different tissue types? While previous studies may imply the latter, with some known targets of GATA3 perhaps being specific to cell-type or tissue-type, the question has not been systematically addressed until now. With the advent of techniques such as co-expression meta-analysis a better understanding of the pathway partners of GATA3 can be obtained and specifically the partners within different tissue types can be found, yielding leads for future studies. Here, a recent technique of meta-analysis from the Oncomine database has been employed to probe this very question. Data obtained implies that GATA3 is involved in distinct pathways in different tissue types.