Dataset Information

Interrogation of human hematopoiesis at single-cell and single-variant resolution.

ABSTRACT: Widespread linkage disequilibrium and incomplete annotation of cell-to-cell state variation represent substantial challenges to elucidating mechanisms of trait-associated genetic variation. Here we perform genetic fine-mapping for blood cell traits in the UK Biobank to identify putative causal variants. These variants are enriched in genes encoding proteins in trait-relevant biological pathways and in accessible chromatin of hematopoietic progenitors. For regulatory variants, we explore patterns of developmental enhancer activity, predict molecular mechanisms, and identify likely target genes. In several instances, we localize multiple independent variants to the same regulatory element or gene. We further observe that variants with pleiotropic effects preferentially act in common progenitor populations to direct the production of distinct lineages. Finally, we leverage fine-mapped variants in conjunction with continuous epigenomic annotations to identify trait-cell type enrichments within closely related populations and in single cells. Our study provides a comprehensive framework for single-variant and single-cell analyses of genetic associations.

SUBMITTER: Ulirsch JC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6441389 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Interrogation of human hematopoiesis at single-cell and single-variant resolution.

Ulirsch Jacob C JC Lareau Caleb A CA Bao Erik L EL Ludwig Leif S LS Guo Michael H MH Benner Christian C Satpathy Ansuman T AT Kartha Vinay K VK Salem Rany M RM Hirschhorn Joel N JN Finucane Hilary K HK Aryee Martin J MJ Buenrostro Jason D JD Sankaran Vijay G VG

Nature genetics 20190311 4

Widespread linkage disequilibrium and incomplete annotation of cell-to-cell state variation represent substantial challenges to elucidating mechanisms of trait-associated genetic variation. Here we perform genetic fine-mapping for blood cell traits in the UK Biobank to identify putative causal variants. These variants are enriched in genes encoding proteins in trait-relevant biological pathways and in accessible chromatin of hematopoietic progenitors. For regulatory variants, we explore patterns ...[more]

PMID: 30858613

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Project description:Early hematopoiesis is a continuous process in which hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) gradually differentiate toward specific lineages. Aging and myeloid malignant transformation are characterized by changes in the composition and regulation of HSPCs. In this study, we used single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to characterize an enriched population of human HSPCs obtained from young and elderly healthy individuals.Based on their transcriptional profile, we identified changes in the proportions of progenitor compartments during aging, and differences in their functionality, as evidenced by gene set enrichment analysis. Trajectory inference revealed that altered gene expression dynamics accompanied cell differentiation, which could explain aging-associated changes in hematopoiesis. Next, we focused on key regulators of transcription by constructing gene regulatory networks (GRNs) and detected regulons that were specifically active in elderly individuals. Using previous findings in healthy cells as a reference, we analyzed scRNA-seq data obtained from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and detected specific alterations of the expression dynamics of genes involved in erythroid differentiation in all patients with MDS such as TRIB2. In addition, the comparison between transcriptional programs and GRNs regulating normal HSPCs and MDS HSPCs allowed identification of regulons that were specifically active in MDS cases such as SMAD1, HOXA6, POU2F2, and RUNX1 suggesting a role of these transcription factors (TFs) in the pathogenesis of the disease.In summary, we demonstrate that the combination of single-cell technologies with computational analysis tools enable the study of a variety of cellular mechanisms involved in complex biological systems such as early hematopoiesis and can be used to dissect perturbed differentiation trajectories associated with perturbations such as aging and malignant transformation. Furthermore, the identification of abnormal regulatory mechanisms associated with myeloid malignancies could be exploited for personalized therapeutic approaches in individual patients.

Dataset Information

Interrogation of human hematopoiesis at single-cell and single-variant resolution.

Publications

Interrogation of human hematopoiesis at single-cell and single-variant resolution.

Similar Datasets

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