Do human and cattle transcriptomes match?
Across 10,830 human and 4,866 cattle RNA-seq samples (20 tissues, 17,315 orthologs), expression, cis-eQTLs, and co-expression were generally conserved, and GWAS heritability sat more in conserved than diverged genes.
Source
Comparative transcriptome in large-scale human and cattle populations
Study at a glance
- Design
- Computational / modelling — Comparative RNA-seq of GTEx v8 vs CattleGTEx across 20 matched tissues, then GWAS heritability enrichment
- N
- N=15696 · 10,830 human GTEx RNA-seq samples plus 4,866 cattle RNA-seq samples; 17,315 one-to-one orthologs; GWAS for 46 human traits (mean n=327,973) and 45 cattle traits (mean n=24,635)
- Population
- Human GTEx v8 and CattleGTEx transcriptomes in 20 shared tissues; large-scale human and cattle GWAS
- Outcome
- Cross-species conservation of mean expression, cis-eQTLs, co-expression, and heritability enrichment in conserved vs diverged genes
Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.
What they did
Compared GTEx v8 and CattleGTEx RNA-seq in 20 matched tissues, focusing on 17,315 one-to-one orthologs, then overlaid cis-eQTLs and co-expression with 46 human (mean n=327,973) and 45 cattle (mean n=24,635) GWAS.
What they found
Mean/median expression, inter-individual variation, eQTLs, and co-expression were generally conserved (e.g. Spearman r=0.59 for numbers of expressed genes across tissues). Testis expressed the most genes in both species. Heritability of complex traits was significantly more enriched in transcriptionally conserved genes.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Conservation of expression is not proof that cattle are a disease model for any given human trait; RNA-seq matching and GWAS overlap do not replace functional experiments.
Key terms
- GTEx
- Human Genotype-Tissue Expression project (v8 RNA-seq used here).
- CattleGTEx
- Cattle gene-expression atlas matched to 20 human tissue classes.
- Ortholog
- One-to-one gene pair between human and cattle; 17,315 genes analyzed.
- cis-eQTL
- Nearby genetic variant associated with a gene’s expression.
- Heritability enrichment
- Whether GWAS signal concentrates in a gene set (here, conserved vs diverged genes).
- TPM
- Transcripts per kilobase million; median TPM >0.1 defined expressed genes.
Flashcards
Research intelligence for this paper
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Quiz yourself
Human RNA-seq samples numbered about:
Common questions
How many RNA-seq samples?
10,830 human and 4,866 cattle.
How many tissues were matched?
20 common tissues.
How many orthologs?
17,315 one-to-one orthologous genes.
Where was heritability enriched?
In transcriptionally conserved rather than diverged genes.
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