A genome-wide gene expression signature of environmental geography in leukocytes of Moroccan amazighs

Idaghdour, Youssef, Storey, John D., Jadallah, Sami J. and Gibson, Greg (2008) A genome-wide gene expression signature of environmental geography in leukocytes of Moroccan amazighs. PLoS Genetics, 4 4: Article Number: e1000052.


Author Idaghdour, Youssef
Storey, John D.
Jadallah, Sami J.
Gibson, Greg
Title A genome-wide gene expression signature of environmental geography in leukocytes of Moroccan amazighs
Journal name PLoS Genetics  (ERA 2012 Listed)    (ERA 2010 Rank A)   Check publisher's open access policy
Publication date 2008-04
Sub-type Article
DOI 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000052
Volume number 4
Issue number 4
ISSN 1533-7390
Start page Article Number: e1000052
Total pages 10
Place of publication San Francisco, CA, USA
Publisher Public Library of Science
Collection year 2009
Language eng
Subject C1
970111 Expanding Knowledge in the Medical and Health Sciences
060401 Anthropological Genetics
0604 Genetics
Formatted abstract The different environments that humans experience are likely to impact physiology and disease susceptibility. In order to estimate the magnitude of the impact of environment on transcript abundance, we examined gene expression in peripheral blood leukocyte samples from 46 desert nomadic, mountain agrarian and coastal urban Moroccan Amazigh individuals. Despite great expression heterogeneity in humans, as much as one third of the leukocyte transcriptome was found to be associated with differences among regions. Genome-wide polymorphism analysis indicates that genetic differentiation in the total sample is limited and is unlikely to explain the expression divergence. Methylation profiling of 1,505 CpG sites suggests limited contribution of methylation to the observed differences in gene expression. Genetic network analysis further implies that specific aspects of immune function are strongly affected by regional factors and may influence susceptibility to respiratory and inflammatory disease. Our results show a strong genome-wide gene expression signature of regional population differences that presumably include lifestyle, geography, and biotic factors, implying that these can play at least as great a role as genetic divergence in modulating gene expression variation in humans.
Keyword Universal bead arrays
Transcription Factors
Human-populations
Association
identification
Methylation
Asthma
Cancer
Q-Index Code C1
Q-Index Status Confirmed Code
Additional Notes This is an electronic publication. -- Published online 2008 April 11

Document type: Journal Article
Sub-type: Article
Collections: 2009 Higher Education Research Data Collection
School of Biological Sciences Publications
 
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Created: Fri, 21 Nov 2008, 16:34:28 EST by Gail Walter on behalf of School of Biological Sciences