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Gene expression variability in human and chimpanzee populations share common determinants

Inter-individual variation in gene expression has been shown to be heritable and is often associated with differences in disease susceptibility between individuals. Many studies focused on mapping associations between genetic and gene regulatory variation, yet much less attention has been paid to th...

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Autores principales: Fair, Benjamin Jung, Blake, Lauren E, Sarkar, Abhishek, Pavlovic, Bryan J, Cuevas, Claudia, Gilad, Yoav
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7644215/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33084571
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59929
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author Fair, Benjamin Jung
Blake, Lauren E
Sarkar, Abhishek
Pavlovic, Bryan J
Cuevas, Claudia
Gilad, Yoav
author_facet Fair, Benjamin Jung
Blake, Lauren E
Sarkar, Abhishek
Pavlovic, Bryan J
Cuevas, Claudia
Gilad, Yoav
author_sort Fair, Benjamin Jung
collection PubMed
description Inter-individual variation in gene expression has been shown to be heritable and is often associated with differences in disease susceptibility between individuals. Many studies focused on mapping associations between genetic and gene regulatory variation, yet much less attention has been paid to the evolutionary processes that shape the observed differences in gene regulation between individuals in humans or any other primate. To begin addressing this gap, we performed a comparative analysis of gene expression variability and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in humans and chimpanzees, using gene expression data from primary heart samples. We found that expression variability in both species is often determined by non-genetic sources, such as cell-type heterogeneity. However, we also provide evidence that inter-individual variation in gene regulation can be genetically controlled, and that the degree of such variability is generally conserved in humans and chimpanzees. In particular, we found a significant overlap of orthologous genes associated with eQTLs in both species. We conclude that gene expression variability in humans and chimpanzees often evolves under similar evolutionary pressures.
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spelling pubmed-76442152020-11-09 Gene expression variability in human and chimpanzee populations share common determinants Fair, Benjamin Jung Blake, Lauren E Sarkar, Abhishek Pavlovic, Bryan J Cuevas, Claudia Gilad, Yoav eLife Evolutionary Biology Inter-individual variation in gene expression has been shown to be heritable and is often associated with differences in disease susceptibility between individuals. Many studies focused on mapping associations between genetic and gene regulatory variation, yet much less attention has been paid to the evolutionary processes that shape the observed differences in gene regulation between individuals in humans or any other primate. To begin addressing this gap, we performed a comparative analysis of gene expression variability and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) in humans and chimpanzees, using gene expression data from primary heart samples. We found that expression variability in both species is often determined by non-genetic sources, such as cell-type heterogeneity. However, we also provide evidence that inter-individual variation in gene regulation can be genetically controlled, and that the degree of such variability is generally conserved in humans and chimpanzees. In particular, we found a significant overlap of orthologous genes associated with eQTLs in both species. We conclude that gene expression variability in humans and chimpanzees often evolves under similar evolutionary pressures. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020-10-21 /pmc/articles/PMC7644215/ /pubmed/33084571 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59929 Text en © 2020, Fair et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Evolutionary Biology
Fair, Benjamin Jung
Blake, Lauren E
Sarkar, Abhishek
Pavlovic, Bryan J
Cuevas, Claudia
Gilad, Yoav
Gene expression variability in human and chimpanzee populations share common determinants
title Gene expression variability in human and chimpanzee populations share common determinants
title_full Gene expression variability in human and chimpanzee populations share common determinants
title_fullStr Gene expression variability in human and chimpanzee populations share common determinants
title_full_unstemmed Gene expression variability in human and chimpanzee populations share common determinants
title_short Gene expression variability in human and chimpanzee populations share common determinants
title_sort gene expression variability in human and chimpanzee populations share common determinants
topic Evolutionary Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7644215/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33084571
http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59929
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