Dataset Information

Natural genetic variation in transcriptome reflects network structure inferred with major effect mutations: insulin/TOR and associated phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A molecular process based genotype-to-phenotype map will ultimately enable us to predict how genetic variation among individuals results in phenotypic alterations. Building such a map is, however, far from straightforward. It requires understanding how molecular variation re-shapes developmental and metabolic networks, and how the functional state of these networks modifies phenotypes in genotype specific way. We focus on the latter problem by describing genetic variation in transcript levels of genes in the InR/TOR pathway among 72 Drosophila melanogaster genotypes.

Results

We observe tight co-variance in transcript levels of genes not known to influence each other through direct transcriptional control. We summarize transcriptome variation with factor analyses, and observe strong co-variance of gene expression within the dFOXO-branch and within the TOR-branch of the pathway. Finally, we investigate whether major axes of transcriptome variation shape phenotypes expected to be influenced through the InR/TOR pathway. We find limited evidence that transcript levels of individual upstream genes in the InR/TOR pathway predict fly phenotypes in expected ways. However, there is no evidence that these effects are mediated through the major axes of downstream transcriptome variation.

Conclusion

In summary, our results question the assertion of the 'sparse' nature of genetic networks, while validating and extending candidate gene approaches in the analyses of complex traits.

SUBMITTER: Nuzhdin SV

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2674066 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Natural genetic variation in transcriptome reflects network structure inferred with major effect mutations: insulin/TOR and associated phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster.

Nuzhdin Sergey V SV Brisson Jennifer A JA Pickering Andrew A Wayne Marta L ML Harshman Lawrence G LG McIntyre Lauren M LM

BMC genomics 20090324

<h4>Background</h4>A molecular process based genotype-to-phenotype map will ultimately enable us to predict how genetic variation among individuals results in phenotypic alterations. Building such a map is, however, far from straightforward. It requires understanding how molecular variation re-shapes developmental and metabolic networks, and how the functional state of these networks modifies phenotypes in genotype specific way. We focus on the latter problem by describing genetic variation in t ...[more]

PMID: 19317915

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Project description:BackgroundThe formation of matured and individual sperm involves a series of molecular and spectacular morphological changes of the developing cysts in Drosophila melanogaster testis. Recent advances in RNA Sequencing (RNA-Seq) technology help us to understand the complexity of eukaryotic transcriptomes by dissecting different tissues and developmental stages of organisms. To gain a better understanding of cellular differentiation of spermatogenesis, we applied RNA-Seq to analyse the testis-specific transcriptome, including coding and non-coding genes.ResultsWe isolated three different parts of the wild-type testis by dissecting and cutting the different regions: 1.) the apical region, which contains stem cells and developing spermatocytes 2.) the middle region, with enrichment of meiotic cysts 3.) the basal region, which contains elongated post-meiotic cysts with spermatids. Total RNA was isolated from each region and analysed by next-generation sequencing. We collected data from the annotated 17412 Drosophila genes and identified 5381 genes with significant transcript accumulation differences between the regions, representing the main stages of spermatogenesis. We demonstrated for the first time the presence and region specific distribution of 2061 lncRNAs in testis, with 203 significant differences. Using the available modENCODE RNA-Seq data, we determined the tissue specificity indices of Drosophila genes. Combining the indices with our results, we identified genes with region-specific enrichment in testis.ConclusionBy multiple analyses of our results and integrating existing knowledge about Drosophila melanogaster spermatogenesis to our dataset, we were able to describe transcript composition of different regions of Drosophila testis, including several stage-specific transcripts. We present searchable visualizations that can facilitate the identification of new components that play role in the organisation and composition of different stages of spermatogenesis, including the less known, but complex regulation of post-meiotic stages.

Dataset Information

Natural genetic variation in transcriptome reflects network structure inferred with major effect mutations: insulin/TOR and associated phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster.

Background

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Natural genetic variation in transcriptome reflects network structure inferred with major effect mutations: insulin/TOR and associated phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster.

Similar Datasets

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