A transcriptome-based approach to identify functional modules within and across primary human immune cells.

• Main Authors: Saraï Mola, Sylvain Foisy, Gabrielle Boucher, François Major, Claudine Beauchamp, Mohamad Karaky, Philippe Goyette, Sylvie Lesage, John D Rioux
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2020-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233543

Genome-wide transcriptomic analyses have provided valuable insight into fundamental biology and disease pathophysiology. Many studies have taken advantage of the correlation in the expression patterns of the transcriptome to infer a potential biologic function of uncharacterized genes, and multiple groups have examined the relationship between co-expression, co-regulation, and gene function on a broader scale. Given the unique characteristics of immune cells circulating in the blood, we were interested in determining whether it was possible to identify functional co-expression modules in human immune cells. Specifically, we sequenced the transcriptome of nine immune cell types from peripheral blood cells of healthy donors and, using a combination of global and targeted analyses of genes within co-expression modules, we were able to determine functions for these modules that were cell lineage-specific or shared among multiple cell lineages. In addition, our analyses identified transcription factors likely important for immune cell lineage commitment and/or maintenance.