Dataset Information

Region-specific Transcriptome Analysis of the Human Retina and RPE/Choroid

ABSTRACT:

Proper spatial differentiation of retinal cell types is necessary for normal human vision. Many retinal diseases, such as Best disease and male germ cell associated kinase (MAK)-associated retinitis pigmentosa, preferentially affect distinct topographic regions of the retina. While much is known about the distribution of cell types in the retina, the distribution of molecular components across the posterior pole of the eye has not been well-studied. To investigate regional difference in molecular composition of ocular tissues, we assessed differential gene expression across the temporal, macular, and nasal retina and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)/choroid of human eyes using RNA-Seq. RNA from temporal, macular, and nasal retina and RPE/choroid from four human donor eyes was extracted, poly-A selected, fragmented, and sequenced as 100 bp read pairs. Digital read files were mapped to the human genome and analyzed for differential expression using the Tuxedo software suite. Retina and RPE/choroid samples were clearly distinguishable at the transcriptome level. Numerous transcription factors were differentially expressed between regions of the retina and RPE/choroid. Photoreceptor-specific genes were enriched in the peripheral samples, while ganglion cell and amacrine cell genes were enriched in the macula. Within the RPE/choroid, RPE-specific genes were upregulated at the periphery while endothelium associated genes were upregulated in the macula. Consistent with previous studies, BEST1 expression was lower in macular than extramacular regions. The MAK gene was expressed at lower levels in macula than in extramacular regions, but did not exhibit a significant difference between nasal and temporal retina. The regional molecular distinction is greatest between macula and periphery and decreases between different peripheral regions within a tissue. Datasets such as these can be used to prioritize candidate genes for possible involvement in retinal diseases with regional phenotypes.

Reprinted from Whitmore, S.S., Wagner, A.H., DeLuca, A.P., Drack, A.V., Stone, E.M., Tucker, B.A., Zeng, S., Braun, T.A., Mullins, R.F., Scheetz, T.E., 2014. Transcriptomic analysis across nasal, temporal, and macular regions of human neural retina and RPE/choroid by RNA-Seq. Experimental Eye Research. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.

Additional RNA sequencing was performed on temporal, macular, nasal, inferior, and superior retina from a fifth subject and is included in this dataset. See original publication for details.

PROVIDER: phs001151 | dbGaP |

SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA336371PRJNA336370

REPOSITORIES: dbGaP

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Project description:To investigate the retinal proteins associated with primary and secondary retinal ganglion cell (RGC) degeneration and explore their molecular pathways, SWATH label-free and target-based mass spectrometry was employed to identify the proteomes in various retinal locations in response to localized optic nerve injury. Unilateral partial optic nerve transection (pONT) was performed on adult Wistar rats and their retinas were harvested at 2 weeks later. To confirm the separation of primary and secondary RGC degeneration, immunohistochemistry of RNA binding protein with multiple splicing (RBPMS) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was performed on retinal whole-mounts. Retinal proteomes in the temporal and nasal quadrants were evaluated with high resolution hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (QTOF-MS), and SWATH-based acquisition, and their expression was compared to the corresponding retinal quadrant in contralateral control eyes and further validated by multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (MRM-MS). A total of 3641 proteins (p<0.05, FDR<1%) were quantified by SWATH-MS. Bioinformatics data analysis showed that there were 35 up-regulated and 24 down-regulated proteins in the temporal quadrant while 19 and 5 proteins were up-regulated and down-regulated, respectively, in the nasal quadrant respectively (n=4, p<0.05; fold change ≥1.4 fold or ≤0.7). Six proteins were regulated in both the temporal and the nasal quadrants including CLU, GFAP, GNG5, IRF2BPL, L1CAM and CPLX1. Linear regression analysis indicated a strong association between the data obtained by SWATH-MS and MRM-MS (temporal, R2=0.97; nasal, R2=0.96). Gene ontology analysis reveals statistically significant changes in the biological processes and cellular components of primary RGC degeneration. The majority of the significant changes in structural, signaling, and cell death proteins were associated with loss of RGCs in the area of primary RGC degeneration. The combined use of SWATH-MS and MRM-MS methods detects and quantifies regional changes of retinal protein expressions after localized injury. Future investigation with this integrated approach will significantly increase understanding of diverse processes of progressive RGC degeneration from a proteomic prospective.

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Region-specific Transcriptome Analysis of the Human Retina and RPE/Choroid

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