Chunk #22 — Results — Integrating Genetic and Network Data across Species to Inform GWA Discoveries — Identifying candidate susceptibility genes for T1D.
The association to RPS26 expression suggests that this gene warrants further study in the context of T1D. However, these data on their own are still far from conclusive, given there may be DNA variants that affect RPS26 expression independently of T1D, but where these variants are in strong LD with the DNA variants explaining the T1D susceptibility. Therefore, to further explore the role RPS26 and ERBB3 may play in T1D, we examined the expression data for these genes in an expression atlas for human, monkey, and mouse, where for each species, between 45 and 60 tissue samples were profiled [26,27]. Although both genes are expressed in mouse, monkey, and human tissues, the expression of RPS26 is >1–2 log units higher in the pancreas and islets of Langerhan compared to ERBB3 (Figure S1), with ERBB3 observed as lowly expressed in islets as measured in the mouse body atlas. Given the central role that pancreas and islets play in T1D, these results further suggest RPS26 as a candidate susceptibility gene for T1D.
