Chunk #10 — Results — eQTL at a common inversion polymorphism on chromosome 17q21 — Regional and developmental expression of fetal eGenes in the human brain
We used RNA sequencing data from dissected regions of the human pre- and post-natal brain, available through the BrainSpan project, to explore the spatiotemporal expression of the fetal eGenes we identified. In general, fetal eGenes were expressed fairly uniformly across dissected regions of both the fetal and adult brain, with some genes showing very high expression and others very low (Additional file 2: Figure S5 and Figure S6). Similarly, the majority of fetal eGenes displayed a reasonably stable pattern of expression across brain development, even when the associated eQTLs were predicted to be fetal-specific (Additional file 2: Figure S7). A notable exception to this pattern was observed in the developmental expression of the predicted fetal-specific eGene HBG1, encoding hemoglobin subunit gamma 1 (a component of fetal hemoglobin), which showed the expected preponderance in prenatal brain (Additional file 2: Figure S8).
