TY - JOUR
T1 - Placental Transcription Profiling in 6–23 Weeks’ Gestation Reveals Differential Transcript Usage in Early Development
AU - Bogias, Konstantinos J.
AU - Pederson, Stephen M.
AU - Leemaqz, Shalem
AU - Smith, Melanie D.
AU - McAninch, Dale
AU - Jankovic-Karasoulos, Tanja
AU - McCullough, Dylan
AU - Wan, Qianhui
AU - Bianco-Miotto, Tina
AU - Breen, James
AU - Roberts, Claire T.
PY - 2022/5/1
Y1 - 2022/5/1
N2 - The human placenta is a rapidly developing transient organ that is key to pregnancy success. Early development of the conceptus occurs in a low oxygen environment before oxygenated maternal blood begins to flow into the placenta at ~10–12 weeks’ gestation. This process is likely to substantially affect overall placental gene expression. Transcript variability underlying gene expression has yet to be profiled. In this study, accurate transcript expression profiles were identified for 84 human placental chorionic villus tissue samples collected across 6–23 weeks’ gestation. Differential gene expression (DGE), differential transcript expression (DTE) and differential transcript usage (DTU) between 6–10 weeks’ and 11–23 weeks’ gestation groups were assessed. In total, 229 genes had significant DTE yet no significant DGE. Integration of DGE and DTE analyses found that differential expression patterns of individual transcripts were commonly masked upon aggregation to the gene-level. Of the 611 genes that exhibited DTU, 534 had no significant DGE or DTE. The four most significant DTU genes ADAM10, VMP1, GPR126, and ASAH1, were associated with hypoxia-responsive pathways. Transcript usage is a likely regulatory mechanism in early placentation. Identification of functional roles will facilitate new insight in understanding the origins of pregnancy complications.
AB - The human placenta is a rapidly developing transient organ that is key to pregnancy success. Early development of the conceptus occurs in a low oxygen environment before oxygenated maternal blood begins to flow into the placenta at ~10–12 weeks’ gestation. This process is likely to substantially affect overall placental gene expression. Transcript variability underlying gene expression has yet to be profiled. In this study, accurate transcript expression profiles were identified for 84 human placental chorionic villus tissue samples collected across 6–23 weeks’ gestation. Differential gene expression (DGE), differential transcript expression (DTE) and differential transcript usage (DTU) between 6–10 weeks’ and 11–23 weeks’ gestation groups were assessed. In total, 229 genes had significant DTE yet no significant DGE. Integration of DGE and DTE analyses found that differential expression patterns of individual transcripts were commonly masked upon aggregation to the gene-level. Of the 611 genes that exhibited DTU, 534 had no significant DGE or DTE. The four most significant DTU genes ADAM10, VMP1, GPR126, and ASAH1, were associated with hypoxia-responsive pathways. Transcript usage is a likely regulatory mechanism in early placentation. Identification of functional roles will facilitate new insight in understanding the origins of pregnancy complications.
KW - development
KW - human
KW - placenta
KW - RNA-seq
KW - transcriptome
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128261990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/NHMRC/1174971
U2 - 10.3390/ijms23094506
DO - 10.3390/ijms23094506
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85128261990
SN - 1661-6596
VL - 23
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
JF - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
IS - 9
M1 - 4506
ER -