scholarly journals T-box transcription factor 3 governs a transcriptional program for the function of the mouse atrioventricular conduction system

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (31) ◽  
pp. 18617-18626
Author(s):  
Rajiv A. Mohan ◽  
Fernanda M. Bosada ◽  
Jan H. van Weerd ◽  
Karel van Duijvenboden ◽  
Jianan Wang ◽  
...  

Genome-wide association studies have identified noncoding variants nearTBX3that are associated with PR interval and QRS duration, suggesting that subtle changes inTBX3expression affect atrioventricular conduction system function. To explore whether and to what extent the atrioventricular conduction system is affected by Tbx3 dose reduction, we first characterized electrophysiological properties and morphology of heterozygousTbx3mutant (Tbx3+/−) mouse hearts. We found PR interval shortening and prolonged QRS duration, as well as atrioventricular bundle hypoplasia after birth in heterozygous mice. The atrioventricular node size was unaffected. Transcriptomic analysis of atrioventricular nodes isolated by laser capture microdissection revealed hundreds of deregulated genes inTbx3+/−mutants. Notably,Tbx3+/−atrioventricular nodes showed increased expression of working myocardial gene programs (mitochondrial and metabolic processes, muscle contractility) and reduced expression of pacemaker gene programs (neuronal, Wnt signaling, calcium/ion channel activity). By integrating chromatin accessibility profiles (ATAC sequencing) of atrioventricular tissue and other epigenetic data, we identified Tbx3-dependent atrioventricular regulatory DNA elements (REs) on a genome-wide scale. We used transgenic reporter assays to determine the functionality of candidate REs nearRyr2,an up-regulated chamber-enriched gene, and inCacna1g,a down-regulated conduction system-specific gene. Using genome editing to delete candidate REs, we showed that a strong intronic bipartite RE selectively governsCacna1gexpression in the conduction system in vivo. Our data provide insights into the multifactorial Tbx3-dependent transcriptional network that regulates the structure and function of the cardiac conduction system, which may underlie the differences in PR duration and QRS interval between individuals carrying variants in theTBX3locus.

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Hendrik van Weerd ◽  
Rajiv A Mohan ◽  
Karel van Duijvenboden ◽  
Ingeborg B Hooijkaas ◽  
Vincent Wakker ◽  
...  

Genome-wide association studies have implicated common genomic variants in the gene desert upstream of TBX3 in cardiac conduction velocity. Whether these noncoding variants affect expression of TBX3 or neighboring genes and how they affect cardiac conduction is not understood. Here, we use high-throughput STARR-seq to test the entire 1.3 Mb human and mouse TBX3 locus, including two cardiac conduction-associated variant regions, for regulatory function. We identified multiple accessible and functional regulatory DNA elements that harbor variants affecting their activity. Both variant regions drove gene expression in the cardiac conduction tissue in transgenic reporter mice. Genomic deletion from the mouse genome of one of the regions caused increased cardiac expression of only Tbx3, PR interval shortening and increased QRS duration. Combined, our findings address the mechanistic link between trait-associated variants in the gene desert, TBX3 regulation and cardiac conduction.


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. e025530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annina B Schmid ◽  
Kaustubh Adhikari ◽  
Luis Miguel Ramirez-Aristeguieta ◽  
Juan-Camilo Chacón-Duque ◽  
Giovanni Poletti ◽  
...  

IntroductionPain constitutes a major component of the global burden of diseases. Recent studies suggest a strong genetic contribution to pain susceptibility and severity. Whereas most of the available evidence relies on candidate gene association or linkage studies, research on the genetic basis of pain sensitivity using genome-wide association studies (GWAS) is still in its infancy. This protocol describes a proposed GWAS on genetic contributions to baseline pain sensitivity and nociceptive sensitisation in a sample of unrelated healthy individuals of mixed Latin American ancestry.Methods and analysisA GWAS on genetic contributions to pain sensitivity in the naïve state and following nociceptive sensitisation will be conducted in unrelated healthy individuals of mixed ancestry. Mechanical and thermal pain sensitivity will be evaluated with a battery of quantitative sensory tests evaluating pain thresholds. In addition, variation in mechanical and thermal sensitisation following topical application of mustard oil to the skin will be evaluated.Ethics and disseminationThis study received ethical approval from the University College London research ethics committee (3352/001) and from the bioethics committee of the Odontology Faculty at the University of Antioquia (CONCEPTO 01–2013). Findings will be disseminated to commissioners, clinicians and service users via papers and presentations at international conferences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Kirsten Voorhies ◽  
Joanne E. Sordillo ◽  
Michael McGeachie ◽  
Elizabeth Ampleford ◽  
Alberta L. Wang ◽  
...  

An unaddressed and important issue is the role age plays in modulating response to short acting β2-agonists in individuals with asthma. The objective of this study was to identify whether age modifies genetic associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with bronchodilator response (BDR) to β2-agonists. Using three cohorts with a total of 892 subjects, we ran a genome wide interaction study (GWIS) for each cohort to examine SNP by age interactions with BDR. A fixed effect meta-analysis was used to combine the results. In order to determine if previously identified BDR SNPs had an age interaction, we also examined 16 polymorphisms in candidate genes from two published genome wide association studies (GWAS) of BDR. There were no significant SNP by age interactions on BDR using the genome wide significance level of 5 × 10−8. Using a suggestive significance level of 5 × 10−6, three interactions, including one for a SNP within PRAG1 (rs4840337), were significant and replicated at the significance level of 0.05. Considering candidate genes from two previous GWAS of BDR, three SNPs (rs10476900 (near ADRB2) [p-value = 0.009], rs10827492 (CREM) [p-value = 0.02], and rs72646209 (NCOA3) [p-value = 0.02]) had a marginally significant interaction with age on BDR (p < 0.05). Our results suggest age may be an important modifier of genetic associations for BDR in asthma.


Circulation ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 131 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nora Franceschini ◽  
Adrienne Stilp ◽  
Christina L Wassel ◽  
Holly J Mattix-Kramer ◽  
Michael F Flessner ◽  
...  

Introduction: Genome wide association studies have identified genetic variants in the Cubillin gene ( CUBN ) that explain inter-individual variation in urine albumin-to-creatinine excretion (UACR) in populations. These studies have not included Hispanics/Latinos, the fast growing minority population in the U.S., who has also high prevalence of chronic kidney disease and its risk factors. Hypothesis: By leveraging on population admixture of Hispanics and using a genome wide association approach, we hypothesized that novel loci associated with UACR would be identified. Methods: We used data from 12,212 self-identified Hispanic individuals recruited in a community-based study, aged 18-74 years at screening (2008-2011), and randomly selected from households in four U.S. field centers (Chicago, IL; Miami, FL; Bronx, NY; San Diego, CA). Urine albumin (mg/dl) and creatinine (g/dl) were measured at the baseline exam. UACR was log-transformed for analysis. Individuals were excluded if reporting to have end-stage renal disease. Genotyping was performed using a custom Illumina Omni2.5M array. Imputation of variants was performed using 1000 Genome Project data from cosmopolitan HapMap samples. After quality control of imputed data, we performed mixed linear regression analyses that accounted for the sampling strategy and family relatedness, for variants with minor allele frequency (MAF) > 0.01 and imputation quality > 0.3. We used additive genetic models and adjusted for age, sex, and principal components which were estimated from the data. In a secondary analysis, we also examine the association of significant variants with kidney function using estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) equations. Results: Among 12,212 participants, 41% were men, and mean age was 46 (SD =13). There was little evidence for genome wide inflation (lambda =1.024). We identified significant associations of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with UACR at two loci: CUBN and HBB . The CUBN SNP (chr10:16966414, p=2.1x10-8) is an indel variant with MAF of 0.14, which was not in linkage disequilibrium with previously reported SNP rs1801239 (rsq=0.38, p=1.3x10-4) identified in individuals of European ancestry. The HBB SNP is a missense variant which results in an E [Glu] ⇒ A [Ala] substitution in the beta-globin chain of hemoglobin and a cause of the Mendelian disorder sickle cell anemia (rs334, T allele frequency =0.01, beta=0.44, SE=0.06, p=7.6x10-12). rs344 was not associated with eGFR in our data (p>0.05). Conclusion: This study identified a novel association of a sickle cell missense variant with UACR in Hispanics, and provided evidence for allelic heterogeneity at the CUBN locus. Our findings suggest a role for Mendelian gene variants in increased albuminuria in Hispanic populations with admixture.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 1063-1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. S. Yudin ◽  
N. L. Podkolodnyy ◽  
T. A. Agarkova ◽  
E. V. Ignatieva

Selection by means of genetic markers is a promising approach to the eradication of infectious diseases in farm animals, especially in the absence of effective methods of treatment and prevention. Bovine leukemia virus (BLV) is spread throughout the world and represents one of the biggest problems for the livestock production and food security in Russia. However, recent genome-wide association studies have shown that sensitivity/resistance to BLV is polygenic. The aim of this study was to create a catalog of cattle genes and genes of other mammalian species involved in the pathogenesis of BLV-induced infection and to perform gene prioritization using bioinformatics methods. Based on manually collected information from a range of open sources, a total of 446 genes were included in the catalog of cattle genes and genes of other mammals involved in the pathogenesis of BLV-induced infection. The following criteria were used to prioritize 446 genes from the catalog: (1) the gene is associated with leukemia according to a genome-wide association study; (2) the gene is associated with leukemia according to a case-control study; (3) the role of the gene in leukemia development has been studied using knockout mice; (4) protein-protein interactions exist between the gene-encoded protein and either viral particles or individual viral proteins; (5) the gene is annotated with Gene Ontology terms that are overrepresented for a given list of genes; (6) the gene participates in biological pathways from the KEGG or REACTOME databases, which are over-represented for a given list of genes; (7) the protein encoded by the gene has a high number of protein-protein interactions with proteins encoded by other genes from the catalog. Based on each criterion, a rank was assigned to each gene. Then the ranks were summarized and an overall rank was determined. Prioritization of 446 candidate genes allowed us to identify 5 genes of interest (TNF,LTB,BOLA-DQA1,BOLA-DRB3,ATF2), which can affect the sensitivity/resistance of cattle to leukemia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara L Pulit ◽  
Charli Stoneman ◽  
Andrew P Morris ◽  
Andrew R Wood ◽  
Craig A Glastonbury ◽  
...  

Abstract More than one in three adults worldwide is either overweight or obese. Epidemiological studies indicate that the location and distribution of excess fat, rather than general adiposity, are more informative for predicting risk of obesity sequelae, including cardiometabolic disease and cancer. We performed a genome-wide association study meta-analysis of body fat distribution, measured by waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) adjusted for body mass index (WHRadjBMI), and identified 463 signals in 346 loci. Heritability and variant effects were generally stronger in women than men, and we found approximately one-third of all signals to be sexually dimorphic. The 5% of individuals carrying the most WHRadjBMI-increasing alleles were 1.62 times more likely than the bottom 5% to have a WHR above the thresholds used for metabolic syndrome. These data, made publicly available, will inform the biology of body fat distribution and its relationship with disease.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 1051-1058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha A. Brooks ◽  
John Stick ◽  
Ashley Braman ◽  
Katelyn Palermo ◽  
N. Edward Robinson ◽  
...  

Equine recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN) is a bilateral mononeuropathy with an unknown etiology. In Thoroughbreds (TB), we previously demonstrated that the haplotype association for height (LCORL/NCAPG locus on ECA3, which affects body size) and RLN was coincident. In the present study, we performed a genome-wide association scan (GWAS) for RLN in 458 American Belgian Draft Horses, a breed fixed for the LCORL/NCAPG risk alelle. In this breed, RLN risk is associated with sexually dimorphic differences in height, and we identified a novel locus contributing to height in a sex-specific manner: MYPN (ECA1). Yet this specific locus contributes little to RLN risk, suggesting that other growth traits correlated to height may underlie the correlation to this disease. Controlling for height, we identified a locus on ECA15 contributing to RLN risk specifically in males. These results suggest that loci with sex-specific gene expression play an important role in altering growth traits impacting RLN etiology, but not necessarily adult height. These newly identified genes are promising targets for novel preventative and treatment strategies.


2021 ◽  
pp. ASN.2020111599
Author(s):  
Zhi Yu ◽  
Jin Jin ◽  
Adrienne Tin ◽  
Anna Köttgen ◽  
Bing Yu ◽  
...  

Background: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed numerous loci for kidney function (estimated glomerular filtration rate, eGFR). The relationship of polygenic predictors of eGFR, risk of incident adverse kidney outcomes, and the plasma proteome is not known. Methods: We developed a genome-wide polygenic risk score (PRS) for eGFR by applying the LDpred algorithm to summary statistics generated from a multiethnic meta-analysis of CKDGen Consortium GWAS (N=765,348) and UK Biobank GWAS (90% of the cohort; N=451,508), followed by best parameter selection using the remaining 10% of UK Biobank (N=45,158). We then tested the association of the PRS in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study (N=8,866) with incident chronic kidney disease, kidney failure, and acute kidney injury. We also examined associations between the PRS and 4,877 plasma proteins measured at at middle age and older adulthood and evaluated mediation of PRS associations by eGFR. Results: The developed PRS showed significant associations with all outcomes with hazard ratios (95% CI) per 1 SD lower PRS ranged from 1.06 (1.01, 1.11) to 1.33 (1.28, 1.37). The PRS was significantly associated with 132 proteins at both time points. The strongest associations were with cystatin-C, collagen alpha-1(XV) chain, and desmocollin-2. Most proteins were higher at lower kidney function, except for 5 proteins including testican-2. Most correlations of the genetic PRS with proteins were mediated by eGFR. Conclusions: A PRS for eGFR is now sufficiently strong to capture risk for a spectrum of incident kidney diseases and broadly influences the plasma proteome, primarily mediated by eGFR.


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