Paired DNA and RNA sequencing uncovers common and rare genomic variants regulating gene expression in the human retina

In this study, we uncovered common and rare genomic variants shaping retinal expression profiles. This includes 1,483,595 significant cis-expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) impacting 9,959 and 3,699 genes in NSR and RPE, respectively, with associated genomic variants enriched to cis-candidate regulatory elements and notable shared eGenes between NSR and RPE. We also detected 1051 expression outliers and prioritised 299 rare non-coding single-nucleotide, structural variants or copy number variants as plausible drivers for 28% of outlier events. This study increases understanding of gene expression regulation in the human retina.

Type: Gene Regulation Study
Archiver: European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA)

1 Dataset

Click on a Dataset ID in the table below to learn more, and to find out who to contact about access to these data

Dataset ID	Description	Technology	Samples
EGAD50000002082	The Manchester Eye Tissue Repository Genome-Transcriptome (METR-GT) Project comprises whole genome sequencing data and paired short read, high-depth bulk-RNA sequencing data from the neurosensory retina (NSR) and the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) from 201 unrelated individuals that donated eye-tissue post-mortem. None of the individuals included in the cohort had phenotypic presentation, assessed post-mortem, consistent with late-stage AMD or monogenic ophthalmic disorders. In this dataset we include WGS fastq files, WGS VCF files (at an individual level and an aggregate VCF that has undergone variant-level quality control), RNASeq BAM files of the NSR and RPE, gene expression quantification files of the NSR and RPE (including raw gene counts generated by RNASeQC and estimated TPM and FPKM values generated by RSEM). Additionally, we have included the output files from eQTL mapping in both tissues, generated by tensorQTL and instances of aberrant gene expression events generated by the OUTRIDER module of the DROP pipeline.	Illumina NovaSeq 6000	201