法国斯特拉斯堡大学Joseph Schacherer和Jing Hou共同合作，近期取得重要工作进展。他们通过研究泛转录组揭示了酵母附属基因组对基因表达变异的贡献。相关研究成果2024年5月22日在线发表于《自然—遗传学》杂志上。

据介绍，基因表达是将基因型转化为表型的重要步骤。然而，人们对转录组结构和物种水平上潜在的遗传效应知之甚少。

研究人员生成并分析了4977个核心基因和1468个附属基因的约1000个酵母天然分离株的泛转录组。研究发现，附属基因组是转录组分化的一个未被充分重视的驱动因素。整体基因表达模式与群体结构相结合表明，可遗传表达的变异主要存在于亚群体特异性特征中，其中附属基因的比例过高。全基因组关联分析一致强调，附属基因与比例更多的变异相关，具有更大的效应量，说明了附属基因组在群体内部和群体之间的转录格局中的关键作用。

附：英文原文

Title: Pan-transcriptome reveals a large accessory genome contribution to gene expression variation in yeast

Author: Caudal, lodie, Loegler, Victor, Dutreux, Fabien, Vakirlis, Nikolaos, Teyssonnire, lie, Caradec, Claudia, Friedrich, Anne, Hou, Jing, Schacherer, Joseph

Issue&Volume: 2024-05-22

Abstract: Gene expression is an essential step in the translation of genotypes into phenotypes. However, little is known about the transcriptome architecture and the underlying genetic effects at the species level. Here we generated and analyzed the pan-transcriptome of ~1,000 yeast natural isolates across 4,977 core and 1,468 accessory genes. We found that the accessory genome is an underappreciated driver of transcriptome divergence. Global gene expression patterns combined with population structure showed that variation in heritable expression mainly lies within subpopulation-specific signatures, for which accessory genes are overrepresented. Genome-wide association analyses consistently highlighted that accessory genes are associated with proportionally more variants with larger effect sizes, illustrating the critical role of the accessory genome on the transcriptional landscape within and between populations.

DOI: 10.1038/s41588-024-01769-9

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-024-01769-9