Transcription factor regulation of eQTL activity across individuals and tissues

• Tens of thousands of genetic variants associated with gene expression (cis-eQTLs) have been discovered in the human population. These eQTLs are active in various tissues and contexts, but the molecular mechanisms of eQTL variability are poorly understood, hindering our understanding of genetic regulation across biological contexts. Since many eQTLs are believed to act by altering transcription factor (TF) binding affinity, we hypothesized that analyzing eQTL effect size as a function of TF level may allow discovery of mechanisms of eQTL variability. Using GTEx Consortium eQTL data from 49 tissues, we analyzed the interaction between eQTL effect size and TF level across tissues and across individuals within specific tissues and generated a list of 10,098 TF-eQTL interactions across 2,136 genes that are supported by at least two lines of evidence. These TF-eQTLs were enriched for various TF binding measures, supporting with orthogonal evidence that these eQTLs are regulated by the implicated TFs. We also found that our TF-eQTLs tend to overlap genes with gene-by-environment regulatory effects and to colocalize with GWAS loci, implying that our approach can help to elucidate mechanisms of context-specificity and trait associations. Finally, we highlight an interesting example of IKZF1 TF regulation of an APBB1IP gene eQTL that colocalizes with a GWAS signal for blood cell traits. Together, our findings provide candidate TF mechanisms for a large number of eQTLs and offer a generalizable approach for researchers to discover TF regulators of genetic variant effects in additional QTL datasets. 

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Genetik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Genetics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

interferon regulatory factor 1

IRF1 protein

human

transcription factor

allele

binding site

biological model

gene knockdown

genetics

genome-wide association study

genotype environment interaction

human

metabolism

phenotype

physiology

quantitative trait locus

Alleles

Binding Sites

Gene Knockdown Techniques

Gene-Environment Interaction

Humans

Interferon Regulatory Factor-1

Models

Genetic

Quantitative Trait Loci

Transcription Factors

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)