Screening of candidate genes related to low-dose ionizing radiation based on transcriptome-proteome correlation research techniques

Abstract

Objective: To identify the related genes of low-dose ionizing radiation on basis of association analysis of transcriptome and proteome data, and provide new clues for the molecular mechanism of low-dose radiation (LDR) effect. Methods: In March 2018, healthy human peripheral blood was used as materials for transcriptome sequencing and proteome analysis after exposure to radiation at 150 mGy (treatment group) and no radiation (control group) , with three samples in each group. The total RNA and protein were extracted and then correlation analysis of transcriptomic and proteomic were performed to determine LDR effect-related genes, and after that, the biological process and molecular function were analyzed. Results: A total of 486 genes and 266 proteins were identified differentially expressed between treatment group and control group, respectively. Twelve genes and related proteins were found correlated (P<0.05) . The overall correlation between quantitative protein and gene was low (rs=0.0034) , the differential gene with the same change trend was positively correlated with protein expression (rs=0.6786) , and the differential gene with the opposite change trend was negatively correlated with protein expression (rs=-0.1000) . Seven differentially expressed genes (DEGs) showed the same trend as proteins, among which FBXO7 and SNCA were up-regulated as well as ORM1, ORM2, HIST1H4J, HBZ and LYZ were down-regulated. Five DEGs showed the opposite trend as proteins, including SLC4A1, BCAM, C4B_2, KEL, TGM2 up-regulated in transcription level and down-regulated in protein expression level. These DEGs were involved in various biological processes such as immune system regulation, signal transduction, enzyme activity regulation, transmembrane transport, defense, transcription and DNA repair, which indicated their important roles in response to LDR in human peripheral blood. Conclusion: Twelve candidate genes related to LDR effect and their corresponding expressed proteins are screened by the correlation research of transcriptome and proteome data, which provides new clues for the further study of the mechanism of LDR effect.