Bae Hojin, Jeon Hyowon, Lee Chaeyoung
Department of Bioinformatics and Life Science, Soongsil University, 369 Sangdo-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 06978, Republic of Korea.
Department of Bioinformatics and Life Science, Soongsil University, 369 Sangdo-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 06978, Republic of Korea.
Comput Biol Chem. 2024 Dec;113:108188. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiolchem.2024.108188. Epub 2024 Aug 27.
The B cell receptor (BCR) signaling pathway regulates non-immune cellular response through various pathways like MAPK, NF-kB, and PI3K-Akt. This study aimed to identify expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) and their regulatory functions on BCR signaling pathway genes. A mixed model was employed to analyze eQTL using RNA expression levels in lymphoblastoid from 376 Europeans in the GEUVADIS dataset. In total, 266 SNPs, including 115 cis-acting SNPs, were found for association with transcription of 13 genes (P < 5 × 10), revealing 19 independent signals for five genes through linkage disequilibrium analysis. Functional analysis, aligning them with DNase sensitive sites, transcription factor binding sites, histone modification, promoters/enhancers, CpG islands, and ChIA-PET, identified regulatory variants targeting SYK, VAV2, and PLCG2. Notably, rs2562397 was validated as a SYK promoter variant, and rs694505, rs636667, and rs4889409 were confirmed as enhancer variants for VAV2 and PLCG2. Their allelic differences in gene expression were also confirmed using ENCODE ChIP-seq and Sei neural network prediction. Persistent differential expression of these genes by alleles might impact the adaptive immune system, vascular development, and/or relevant diseases that have been previously associated with other variants of the genes. Comprehensive genetic architecture studies of the BCR signaling pathway, along with experiments demonstrating related mechanisms, will greatly contribute to understanding the underlying mechanisms of relevant disease development and implementing precision medicine.
B细胞受体(BCR)信号通路通过丝裂原活化蛋白激酶(MAPK)、核因子κB(NF-κB)和磷脂酰肌醇-3激酶-蛋白激酶B(PI3K-Akt)等多种途径调节非免疫细胞反应。本研究旨在鉴定BCR信号通路基因的表达数量性状位点(eQTL)及其调控功能。采用混合模型,利用GEUVADIS数据集中376名欧洲人的淋巴母细胞RNA表达水平分析eQTL。共发现266个单核苷酸多态性(SNP)与13个基因的转录相关(P < 5×10),其中包括115个顺式作用SNP,通过连锁不平衡分析揭示了5个基因的19个独立信号。功能分析将这些SNP与DNA酶敏感位点、转录因子结合位点、组蛋白修饰、启动子/增强子、CpG岛和染色质相互作用分析等进行比对,确定了靶向脾酪氨酸激酶(SYK)、Vav鸟嘌呤核苷酸交换因子2(VAV2)和磷脂酶Cγ2(PLCG2)的调控变异。值得注意的是,rs2562397被验证为SYK启动子变异,rs694505、rs636667和rs4889409被确认为VAV2和PLCG2的增强子变异。利用ENCODE染色质免疫沉淀测序(ChIP-seq)和Sei神经网络预测也证实了它们在基因表达上的等位基因差异。这些基因的等位基因持续差异表达可能会影响适应性免疫系统、血管发育和/或先前与这些基因其他变异相关的相关疾病。对BCR信号通路进行全面的遗传结构研究以及相关机制的实验将极大地有助于理解相关疾病发展的潜在机制并实施精准医学。