Global prediction of tissue-specific gene expression and context-dependent gene networks in Caenorhabditis elegans

PLoS Comput Biol. 2009 Jun;5(6):e1000417. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000417. Epub 2009 Jun 19.

Abstract

Tissue-specific gene expression plays a fundamental role in metazoan biology and is an important aspect of many complex diseases. Nevertheless, an organism-wide map of tissue-specific expression remains elusive due to difficulty in obtaining these data experimentally. Here, we leveraged existing whole-animal Caenorhabditis elegans microarray data representing diverse conditions and developmental stages to generate accurate predictions of tissue-specific gene expression and experimentally validated these predictions. These patterns of tissue-specific expression are more accurate than existing high-throughput experimental studies for nearly all tissues; they also complement existing experiments by addressing tissue-specific expression present at particular developmental stages and in small tissues. We used these predictions to address several experimentally challenging questions, including the identification of tissue-specific transcriptional motifs and the discovery of potential miRNA regulation specific to particular tissues. We also investigate the role of tissue context in gene function through tissue-specific functional interaction networks. To our knowledge, this is the first study producing high-accuracy predictions of tissue-specific expression and interactions for a metazoan organism based on whole-animal data.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Animals
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Base Sequence
  • Caenorhabditis elegans / genetics*
  • Caenorhabditis elegans / metabolism
  • Computer Simulation
  • Data Interpretation, Statistical
  • GATA Transcription Factors / genetics
  • GATA Transcription Factors / metabolism
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation*
  • Gene Regulatory Networks*
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / genetics
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / metabolism
  • MicroRNAs / genetics
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism
  • Models, Genetic*
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid

Substances

  • GATA Transcription Factors
  • MicroRNAs
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins