PLX131346

GSE105045: Cerebellar gene expression from Mecp2-null and WT mice [RNA-Seq data set]

• Organsim mouse
• Type RNASEQ
• Target gene
• Project ARCHS4

Several recent studies have suggested that genes that are longer than 100 kb are more likely to be misregulated in neurological diseases associated with synaptic dysfunction, such as autism and Rett syndrome. These length-dependent transcriptional changes are modest in Mecp2 mutant samples, but, given the low sensitivity of high-throughput transcriptome profiling technology, the statistical significance of these results needs to be re-evaluated. Here, we show that the apparent length-dependent trends previously observed in MeCP2 microarray and RNA-Sequencing datasets, particularly in genes with low-fold changes, disappeared when compared to randomized control samples. As we found no similar bias with Nanostring technology, this bias seems to be particular to PCR amplification-based platforms. Transcriptional alterations with large fold-change values, however, can reveal an authentic long gene bias. Discriminating authentic from artefactual length-dependent trends requires establishing a baseline from randomized control samples. SOURCE: Ayush,T,Raman (aayushraman09@gmail.com) - Zhandong Liu Lab Baylor College of Medicine