Integration of genomics and transcriptomics predicts diabetic retinopathy susceptibility genes
Abstract
We determined differential gene expression in response to high glucose in lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from matched individuals with type 1 diabetes with and without retinopathy. Those genes exhibiting the largest difference in glucose response were assessed for association to diabetic retinopathy in a genome-wide association study meta-analysis. Expression Quantitative Trait Loci (eQTLs) of the glucose response genes were tested for association with diabetic retinopathy. We detected an enrichment of the eQTLs from the glucose response genes among small association p-values and identified FLCN as a susceptibility gene for diabetic retinopathy. Expression of FLCN in response to glucose was greater in individuals with diabetic retinopathy. Independent cohorts of individuals with diabetes revealed an association of FLCN eQTLs to diabetic retinopathy. Mendelian randomization confirmed a direct positive effect of increased FLCN expression on retinopathy. Integrating genetic association with gene expression implicated FLCN as a disease gene for diabetic retinopathy.
Data availability
Source files and code for all the figures and tables have been provided, except for drawings, flowcharts and histopathology findings. We have also included links and references where appropriate.Figure 3 source data 5 and 6 are available on Dryad at https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zkh18938jAdditional data files can be found here: microarray expression data at Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) under accession code GSE146615 and diabetic retinopathy GWAS data at UKBB archive (https://oxfile.ox.ac.uk/oxfile/work/extBox?id=825146B4380F72048D).
-
Figure 3 additional source data filesDryad Digital Repository, doi:10.5061/dryad.zkh18938j.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Eye Institute (R01EY023644)
- Michael A Grassi
National Eye Institute (ZIAEY000546)
- Anand Swaroop
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- David E James, The University of Sydney, Australia
Version history
- Received: June 13, 2020
- Accepted: November 6, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: November 9, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: December 10, 2020 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2020, Skol et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 3,188
- Page views
-
- 352
- Downloads
-
- 13
- Citations
Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Crossref, PubMed Central, Scopus.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Genetics and Genomics
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Plasmids enable the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in common Enterobacterales pathogens, representing a major public health challenge. However, the extent of plasmid sharing and evolution between Enterobacterales causing human infections and other niches remains unclear, including the emergence of resistance plasmids. Dense, unselected sampling is essential to developing our understanding of plasmid epidemiology and designing appropriate interventions to limit the emergence and dissemination of plasmid-associated AMR. We established a geographically and temporally restricted collection of human bloodstream infection (BSI)-associated, livestock-associated (cattle, pig, poultry, and sheep faeces, farm soils) and wastewater treatment work (WwTW)-associated (influent, effluent, waterways upstream/downstream of effluent outlets) Enterobacterales. Isolates were collected between 2008 and 2020 from sites <60 km apart in Oxfordshire, UK. Pangenome analysis of plasmid clusters revealed shared ‘backbones’, with phylogenies suggesting an intertwined ecology where well-conserved plasmid backbones carry diverse accessory functions, including AMR genes. Many plasmid ‘backbones’ were seen across species and niches, raising the possibility that plasmid movement between these followed by rapid accessory gene change could be relatively common. Overall, the signature of identical plasmid sharing is likely to be a highly transient one, implying that plasmid movement might be occurring at greater rates than previously estimated, raising a challenge for future genomic One Health studies.
-
- Evolutionary Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
Microbial plankton play a central role in marine biogeochemical cycles, but the timing in which abundant lineages diversified into ocean environments remains unclear. Here, we reconstructed the timeline in which major clades of bacteria and archaea colonized the ocean using a high-resolution benchmarked phylogenetic tree that allows for simultaneous and direct comparison of the ages of multiple divergent lineages. Our findings show that the diversification of the most prevalent marine clades spans throughout a period of 2.2 Ga, with most clades colonizing the ocean during the last 800 million years. The oldest clades – SAR202, SAR324, Ca. Marinimicrobia, and Marine Group II – diversified around the time of the Great Oxidation Event, during which oxygen concentration increased but remained at microaerophilic levels throughout the Mid-Proterozoic, consistent with the prevalence of some clades within these groups in oxygen minimum zones today. We found the diversification of the prevalent heterotrophic marine clades SAR11, SAR116, SAR92, SAR86, and Roseobacter as well as the Marine Group I to occur near to the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (0.8–0.4 Ga). The diversification of these clades is concomitant with an overall increase of oxygen and nutrients in the ocean at this time, as well as the diversification of eukaryotic algae, consistent with the previous hypothesis that the diversification of heterotrophic bacteria is linked to the emergence of large eukaryotic phytoplankton. The youngest clades correspond to the widespread phototrophic clades Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, and Crocosphaera, whose diversification happened after the Phanerozoic Oxidation Event (0.45–0.4 Ga), in which oxygen concentrations had already reached their modern levels in the atmosphere and the ocean. Our work clarifies the timing at which abundant lineages of bacteria and archaea colonized the ocean, thereby providing key insights into the evolutionary history of lineages that comprise the majority of prokaryotic biomass in the modern ocean.