Cited by 255Pluripotent Stem Cells ResearchBioinformatics and Genomic NetworksGene Regulatory Network Analysis

Signed weighted gene co-expression network analysis of transcriptional regulation in murine embryonic stem cells

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Mason, Mike J, Fan, Guoping, Plath, Kathrin, Zhou, Qing, Horvath, Steve·2009·BMC Genomics

Abstract

Background: Recent work has revealed that a core group of transcription factors (TFs) regulates the key characteristics of embryonic stem (ES) cells: pluripotency and self-renewal. Current efforts focus on identifying genes that play important roles in maintaining pluripotency and self-renewal in ES cells and aim to understand the interactions among these genes. To that end, we investigated the use of unsigned and signed network analysis to identify pluripotency and differentiation related genes. Results: We show that signed networks provide a better systems level understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of ES cells than unsigned networks, using two independent murine ES cell expression data sets. Specifically, using signed weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), we found a pluripotency module and a differentiation module, which are not identified in unsigned networks. We confirmed the importance of these modules by incorporating genome-wide TF binding data for key ES cell regulators. Interestingly, we find that the pluripotency module is enriched with genes related to DNA damage repair and mitochondrial function in addition to transcriptional regulation. Using a connectivity measure of module membership, we not only identify known regulators of ES cells but also show that Mrpl15, Msh6, Nrf1, Nup133, Ppif, Rbpj, Sh3gl2, and Zfp39, among other genes, have important roles in maintaining ES cell pluripotency and self-renewal. We also report highly significant relationships between module membership and epigenetic modifications (histone modifications and promoter CpG methylation status), which are known to play a role in controlling gene expression during ES cell self-renewal and differentiation. Conclusion: Our systems biologic re-analysis of gene expression, transcription factor binding, epigenetic and gene ontology data provides a novel integrative view of ES cell biology.

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Authors
Mason, M. J., Fan, G., Plath, K., Zhou, Q., & Horvath, S.
Affiliations
University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Corresponding author
  • Zhou, Qing
  • Horvath, Steve
Venue
BMC Genomics
Published
2009-07-20
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
327-327
ISSN
1471-2164 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2138720219
Cited by
243
References
77
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 11
FWCI
3.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • BMC Genomics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • The HKU Scholars Hub (University of Hong Kong) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (0805491)
  • National Institutes of Health (1dp2od001686-01)
  • National Cancer Institute (P50CA092131, P30CA016042)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P01GM081621)
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U19AI063603)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK072206, DK-072206)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Pluripotent Stem Cells Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Bioinformatics and Genomic Networks
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gene Regulatory Network Analysis
Keywords
mouse embryonic stem cells, pluripotency, self-renewal, gene co-expression network, transcriptional regulation, transcription factor binding, DNA repair, mitochondrial function, histone modifications, promoter CpG methylation, epigenetic regulation, module membership
MeSH terms
Animals, Chromatin, DNA, DNA Damage, DNA Repair, Gene Expression Regulation, Protein Binding, Transcription Factors, Transcription, Genetic, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Gene Expression Profiling, Pluripotent Stem Cells, Mice, Gene Regulatory Networks, Embryonic Stem Cells

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