Exploiting Gene-Expression Deconvolution to Probe the Genetics of the Immune System.

ABSTRACT: Sequence variation can affect the physiological state of the immune system. Major experimental efforts targeted at understanding the genetic control of the abundance of immune cell subpopulations. However, these studies are typically focused on a limited number of immune cell types, mainly due to the use of relatively low throughput cell-sorting technologies. Here we present an algorithm that can reveal the genetic basis of inter-individual variation in the abundance of immune cell types using only gene expression and genotyping measurements as input. Our algorithm predicts the abundance of immune cell subpopulations based on the RNA levels of informative marker genes within a complex tissue, and then provides the genetic control on these predicted immune traits as output. A key feature of

SUBMITTER: Steuerman Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4818015 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature