Population-specific heterogeneity in ontogeny of the broadly-conserved blood transcriptional program during the first week of life - PubMed
3 hours ago
- #neonatal immune ontogeny
- #blood transcriptomics
- #population heterogeneity
- The study examines population-specific differences in blood transcriptional programs during the first week of life, comparing cohorts from The Gambia and Papua New Guinea.
- Ontogeny involves a progressive and robust immune development, with large numbers of differentially expressed genes at each time point.
- Population-specific ontogeny reveals distinct mechanisms: in Papua New Guinea, cell cycle, kinesins, and DAP12 signaling are prominent, while in The Gambia, antigen presentation, clathrin-mediated endocytosis, and alpha-defensins are key.
- A conserved core ontogenic program involves about 18% of expressed genes, with 88-96% conservation across days of life, highlighting shared early-life immune development.
- Differences between populations are analyzed using protein-protein interaction networks and pathway networks, supporting the concept of pathway remodeling.
- Block randomization strategies were employed to minimize batch effects, enabling detailed comparisons between cohorts.