PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Yuanyuan Han
AU  - Huatang Zhang
AU  - Jiejie Dai
AU  - Yang Chen
TI  - Different obesity phenotypes correlated with the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway in tree shrews
AID  - 10.1101/361063
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 361063
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/07/03/361063.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/07/03/361063.full
AB  - Objective To identify the meaningful co-expressed gene network in mRNA extracted from adipose tissue representing different obesity phenotypes in a new tree shrew model. Furthermore, to locate the potential drug target based on analyzing the possible pathways and hub genes responsible for obesity.Methods Ten tree shrews were selected from F1 populations and divided into 3 groups based on their Lee’s index for mRNA sequencing. We identified clusters of highly correlated genes (modules) by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA).Results Three modules were strongly correlated with not less than one obesity phenotype (associations ranging from −0.94 to 0.85, P < 0.01). The ribosome, lysosome and ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis pathways were the most enriched pathways of the blue (including 481 genes), brown (389 genes) and turquoise (1781 genes) modules, respectively. The hub genes were determined, including UBA52 in the blue module, AKT1 in the brown module and LRRK2 in the turquoise module.Conclusions We characterized different obesity phenotypes in tree shrews for the first time. The most represented gene AKT1 indicated the vital role of the PI3K-AKT pathway through interactions with downstream pathways and differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The work will help provide new insight into the prevention and treatment strategies of obesity.(WGCNA)weighted gene co-expression network analysis(DEGs)differentially expressed genes(WAT)white adipose tissue(RNA-Seq)RNA-sequencing(MMP)Maximal Mappable Prefix(KEGG)Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(STRING)Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes