Introduction
Transcriptomics is the study of the RNA that is transcribed from an organism's DNA. Not all DNA in an organism is transcribed, making the transcriptome the collective readout of mRNA transcripts that are ultimately produced [1]. These sequences can be found through various technologies like microarray data or RNA-seq [2]. RNA-seq will provide information about the entire transcriptome, including non-coding variants, while microarray data shows expression data from pre-defined sequences only. Transcriptomics can also be a useful insight to help determine what a gene's molecular function and a physiological role could be deduced partially based on the location of expression.
results
Conclusion
The image is a visual representation of COL3A1 tissue expression in the human body [3]. I was surprised to see such high expression levels in both male and female tissues originally. Uterine prolapses are one major event occurring in vEDS and polymorphisms in this gene can also lead to pelvic organ prolapses seen in Caucasian individuals [4]. From the results, COL3A1 is more highly expressed in female tissues, but the protein expression score for validity was higher in the male tissue due to testis expression [3]. This leads to questions regarding the role of sex differences in the disorder.
References
[1] Transcriptome Fact Sheet. (2020, August 17). Genome.gov. https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Transcriptome-Fact-Sheet
[2] Rao MS, Van Vleet TR, Ciurlionis R, et al. Comparison of RNA-Seq and Microarray Gene Expression Platforms for the Toxicogenomic Evaluation of Liver From Short-Term Rat Toxicity Studies. Front Genet. 2019;9:636. Published 2019 Jan 22. doi:10.3389/fgene.2018.00636
[3] Images from The Human Protein Atlas
[4] Niu K, Chen X, Lu Y. COL3A1 rs1800255 polymorphism is associated with pelvic organ prolapse susceptibility in Caucasian individuals: Evidence from a meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2021;16(4):e0250943. Published 2021 Apr 30. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0250943
[2] Rao MS, Van Vleet TR, Ciurlionis R, et al. Comparison of RNA-Seq and Microarray Gene Expression Platforms for the Toxicogenomic Evaluation of Liver From Short-Term Rat Toxicity Studies. Front Genet. 2019;9:636. Published 2019 Jan 22. doi:10.3389/fgene.2018.00636
[3] Images from The Human Protein Atlas
[4] Niu K, Chen X, Lu Y. COL3A1 rs1800255 polymorphism is associated with pelvic organ prolapse susceptibility in Caucasian individuals: Evidence from a meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2021;16(4):e0250943. Published 2021 Apr 30. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0250943
This web page was produced as an assignment for Genetics 564, a capstone course at UW-Madison