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Genetic variant effects on gene expression in human pancreatic islets and their implications for T2D

Abstract:
Most signals detected by genome-wide association studies map to non-coding sequence and their tissue-specific effects influence transcriptional regulation. However, key tissues and cell-types required for functional inference are absent from large-scale resources. Here we explore the relationship between genetic variants influencing predisposition to type 2 diabetes (T2D) and related glycemic traits, and human pancreatic islet transcription using data from 420 donors. We find: (a) 7741 cis-eQTLs in islets with a replication rate across 44 GTEx tissues between 40% and 73%; (b) marked overlap between islet cis-eQTL signals and active regulatory sequences in islets, with reduced eQTL effect size observed in the stretch enhancers most strongly implicated in GWAS signal location; (c) enrichment of islet cis-eQTL signals with T2D risk variants identified in genome-wide association studies; and (d) colocalization between 47 islet cis-eQTLs and variants influencing T2D or glycemic traits, including DGKB and TCF7L2. Our findings illustrate the advantages of performing functional and regulatory studies in disease relevant tissues.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1038/s41467-020-18581-8

Authors


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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0003-3771-8537
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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0001-9177-9707
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Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
NDM
Sub department:
Human Genetics Wt Centre
Role:
Author
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Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0002-4400-6741


Publisher:
Springer Nature
Journal:
Nature Communications More from this journal
Volume:
11
Article number:
4912
Publication date:
2020-09-30
Acceptance date:
2020-08-12
DOI:
EISSN:
2041-1723
Pmid:
32999275


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
1136917
Local pid:
pubs:1136917
Deposit date:
2020-11-22

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