Abstract
Gene functionality is closely connected to its expression specificity across tissues and cell types. RNA-Seq is a powerful quantitative tool to explore genome wide expression. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive RNA-Seq dataset across the same 13 tissues for mouse and rat, two of the most relevant species for biomedical research. The dataset provides the transcriptome across tissues from three male C57BL6 mice and three male Han Wistar rats. We also describe our bioinformatics pipeline to process and technically validate the data. Principal component analysis shows that tissue samples from both species cluster similarly. We show by comparative genomics that many genes with high sequence identity with respect to their human orthologues also have a highly correlated tissue distribution profile and are in agreement with manually curated literature data for human. In summary, the present study provides a unique resource for comparative genomics and will facilitate the analysis of tissue specificity and cross-species conservation in higher organisms.
Highlights
Background & SummaryBiological cells have multiple functions within the body: They may act as small reactors transforming and exchanging energy and organic compounds within their compartments and tissue environment
The present study provides access to a normal tissue gene expression atlas for male C57BL6 mice and male Han Wistar rats
Experimental protocols concerning the use of laboratory animals were reviewed by a German Federal Ethics Committee and approved by German governmental authorities
Summary
Biological cells have multiple functions within the body: They may act as small reactors transforming and exchanging energy and organic compounds within their compartments and tissue environment. They transmit or modulate biochemical and physical signals and provide structural integrity. Factors include sensitivity (i.e., detection of low abundant proteins) and scope (i.e., large proteins, separation of protein complexes and detection of posttranslational modifications[2]). This is reflected by the observation that public repositories of proteomics data are underused by the scientific community[3] compared to the RNA field. RNA resources, for example the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and ArrayExpress, are widely used resources for end users as well as for some powerful public tools like the Expression Atlas (https://www. ebi.ac.uk/gxa/home), or commercial tools like the nextbio BaseSpace Correlation Engine (https://www. nextbio.com), Genevestigator (https://www.genevestigator.com) or Genestack (https://www.genestack. com)
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