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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Apr 28.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Pharmacogenomics Person Med. 2009 Sep;7(3):164–188. doi: 10.2174/1875692110907030164

Alternatively Spliced Genes as Biomarkers for Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder and Psychosis: A Blood-Based Spliceome-Profiling Exploratory Study

SJ Glatt 1,*, SD Chandler 2,#, CA Bousman 2,#, G Chana 2, GR Lucero 2, E Tatro 2, T May 2, JB Lohr 2, WS Kremen 2,3, IP Everall 2, MT Tsuang 2,3,4
PMCID: PMC3083864  NIHMSID: NIHMS250850  PMID: 21532980

Abstract

Objective

Transcriptomic biomarkers of psychiatric diseases obtained from a query of peripheral tissues that are clinically accessible (e.g., blood cells instead of post-mortem brain tissue) have substantial practical appeal to discern the molecular subtypes of common complex diseases such as major psychosis. To this end, spliceome-profiling is a new methodological approach that has considerable conceptual relevance for discovery and clinical translation of novel biomarkers for psychiatric illnesses. Advances in microarray technology now allow for improved sensitivity in measuring the transcriptome while simultaneously querying the “exome” (all exons) and “spliceome” (all alternatively spliced variants). The present study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of spliceome-profiling to discern transcriptomic biomarkers of psychosis.

Methods

We measured exome and spliceome expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 13 schizophrenia patients, nine bipolar disorder patients, and eight healthy control subjects. Each diagnostic group was compared to each other, and the combined group of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia patients was also compared to the control group. Furthermore, we compared subjects with a history of psychosis to subjects without such history.

Results

After applying Bonferroni corrections for the 21,866 full-length gene transcripts analyzed, we found significant interactions between diagnostic group and exon identity, consistent with group differences in rates or types of alternative splicing. Relative to the control group, 18 genes in the bipolar disorder group, eight genes in the schizophrenia group, and 15 genes in the combined bipolar disorder and schizophrenia group appeared differentially spliced. Importantly, thirty-three genes showed differential splicing patterns between the bipolar disorder and schizophrenia groups. More frequent exon inclusion and/or over-expression was observed in psychosis. Finally, these observations are reconciled with an analysis of the ontologies, the pathways and the protein domains significantly over-represented among the alternatively spliced genes, several of which support prior discoveries.

Conclusions

To our knowledge, this is the first blood-based spliceome-profiling study of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to be reported. The battery of alternatively spliced genes and exons identified in this discovery-oriented exploratory study, if replicated, may have potential utility to discern the molecular subtypes of psychosis. Spliceome-profiling, as a new methodological approach in transcriptomics, warrants further work to evaluate its utility in personalized medicine. Potentially, this approach could also permit the future development of tissue-sampling methodologies in a form that is more acceptable to patients and thereby allow monitoring of dynamic and time-dependent plasticity in disease severity and response to therapeutic interventions in clinical psychiatry.

Keywords: Gene expression, spliceome-profiling, blood-based biomarkers, psychosis, CNS disease diagnostics

INTRODUCTION

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are two of the most prevalent mental health disorders, collectively affecting approximately 1.5% of the population at some point in their lifetime [1, 2]. These are also among the most severe and debilitating disorders with substantial public health importance, typically developing in late adolescence or early adulthood and often imposing near-lifelong disability on affected individuals, as well as considerable strain on their caretakers and society at large. One way to combat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder would be to discover biological markers - or “biomarkers” - for these illnesses, which potentially could revolutionize their rational diagnosis and management. Conceivably, biomarkers could expedite and standardize the process of primary and differential diagnosis, which presently involves considerable time, effort, and uncertainty. Biomarkers also might allow for earlier identification of affected individuals, in turn hastening their receipt of effective (perhaps personalized) treatment and improving prognoses. Furthermore, biomarkers could form the basis for early intervention and prevention efforts targeting at- risk individuals, which might reduce the morbidity and prevalence of these crippling disorders. Collectively, these advances would translate into an enormous improvement in global public health.

Given such immense promise, biomarkers for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have been pursued through many decades and approaches. As both disorders are thought to have relatively high heritability (~80%) [3, 4], biomarkers tied to specific candidate genes have often formed the basis for these pursuits. For example, both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have been the subject of hundreds of candidate-gene association analyses [57] and, most recently, a handful of genome-wide association studies [814]. Through meta-analysis, our group and others have identified several genetic polymorphisms that influence the risk for one or the other disorder [6, 1521]. Collectively, these polymorphisms may explain a small portion of the heritability of each disorder; however, the majority of heritable variance in susceptibility remains unexplained by such variants, as does the considerable amount of risk attributable to non-heritable factors. Furthermore, genetic polymorphisms, as (inherited or acquired) fixed factors, lack flexibility as biomarkers due to their inability to fluctuate over time within individuals and to reflect the course of illness, including periods of risk, prodrome, first episode, chronic illness, remission, and treatment-responsiveness or non-responsiveness. As such, comprehensive biomarker profiles of complex psychiatric disorders may require the integration of markers from multiple “omic” domains [22], including static genomic factors (i.e., DNA polymorphisms) as well as dynamic factors reflected in the transcriptome [i.e., the total messenger RNA (mRNA) expressed in a cell or tissue at a given time [23].

Over the past four years, we and others [2428] have documented the potential utility of blood-based transcrip-tomic profiling of mRNA abundances by microarray as a source of biomarkers for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We first used mRNA expression patterns in circulating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to identify a large number of genes whose expression levels distinguished patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder from each other and from unaffected control subjects based on liberal significance criteria (p<0.05) [29]. We later re-analyzed those data adopting a more conservative permutation-based approach toward the control of type-I errors, which reduced the number of genes identified as differentially expressed in the blood of schizophrenia patients (relative to control subjects) from 567 to 123. Six of these genes were differentially expressed in both PBMCs and postmortem brain tissue from a separate sample of schizophrenia patients, further supporting their candidacy as biomarkers [30]. Of these, SELENBP1 (which codes for selenium binding protein 1) subsequently emerged as the strongest putative biomarker based on the similar magnitude of its up-regulation in both PBMCs and brain, validation of this effect at the protein level, and replication of SELENBP1 dysregulation in an independent series of postmortem brain tissue samples [31]. Interestingly, the strongest result in our replication study was observed in the comparison of tissue from individuals with a history of psychosis (including all schizophrenia patients and a portion of bipolar disorder patients) and individuals without such a history (including the remaining non-psychotic bipolar disorder patients and all unaffected control subjects). This result in particular suggested that future pursuits of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder biomarkers in PBMCs might also profit from a focus on psychosis as a common feature of the disorders, which may be more strongly linked than either diagnosis to changes in the transcriptome. In fact, this conceptualization mirrors the emerging recognition of partially overlapping genetic contributions to the etiology of the two disorders [4, 3235].

Toward facilitating the identification of mRNA bio- markers of disease, technology has been developed recently that exponentially increases the sensitivity and specificity of existing transcriptome-profiling systems (and eliminates 3′ bias) by yielding estimates of exon-level mRNA abundance. In addition to the ability to summate exon-level data into a more accurate measure of full-length gene expression, these microarrays allow for the identification and measurement of different splice variants of all expressed genes as well as the detection of novel splicing events. Given prior evidence of alternative splicing of select candidate genes in schizophrenia [3640] and bipolar disorder [41], it was of keen interest to determine if a preliminary survey of the entire human “spliceome” in PBMCs could reveal useful biomarkers for these disorders, as well as their sometimes-shared clinical feature, psychosis. Additionally, the present study presents a critical overview on the feasibility of spliceome-profiling as a new methodological approach in transcriptomics, and in personalized medicine research more generally.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Ascertainment

Subjects with schizophrenia (SCZ; n=13) or bipolar disorder (BPD; n=11) were recruited from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Psychopharmacology Research Initiatives Center for Excellence (PRICE) participant network. Healthy control subjects (CNT; n=10) were recruited from the same catchment area through the use of flyers and print advertisements. All participants underwent a brief initial phone screening to assess their appropriateness for possible inclusion in the study. During this screening, information was gathered related to the study’s inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as basic demographics (e.g., age, sex, ancestry).

Inclusion criteria required participants to: 1) be between the age of 18 and 55 years; 2) have at least an eighth-grade education; 3) speak English as their first language; and 4) have no documented evidence of mental retardation. Subjects in the two patient groups (SCZ and BPD) were further required to have met criteria for their primary diagnosis (schizophrenia or bipolar disorder) for at least two years. Exclusion criteria were: 1) substance abuse or dependence in the past year; 2) neurologic problems (e.g., stroke, meningitis); 3) systemic medical illnesses (e.g., heart disease, diabetes); 4) history of head injury with documented loss of consciousness lasting longer than 10 minutes; 5) pregnancy; or 6) physical disabilities. Subjects in the CNT group were also excluded if they had a personal or family history of a psychotic disorder, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, or a cluster-A (schizotypal, schizoid, or paranoid) personality disorder. All participants gave written consent prior to enrollment in the study, and all study procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board at UCSD.

Clinical Assessment and Data Analyses

Individuals satisfying inclusion and exclusion criteria during the initial phone screening were scheduled for a two-hour in-person clinical assessment using the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies (DIGS) [42], which was administered by a trained Masters-level research assistant. The DIGS was used to verify information obtained from the phone screening, collect additional psychiatric data, and ultimately assist in accurate diagnosis and classification. To ensure accurate diagnosis and classification of participants, each DIGS was reviewed by two independent doctoral-level clinicians. When discrepancies in diagnoses occurred, an attempt was made to resolve them and come to a consensus diagnosis. If a consensus could not be reached, the participant was excluded from the study. Participants were also excluded if one or more of the inclusion or exclusion criteria were found not to be satisfied following review of the DIGS data.

The DIGS interview also yielded information on important covariates and potential confounding variables of relevance to the analyses of gene expression and alternative splicing. Age was measured continuously in years, whereas sex (male/female), ancestry (European, African, Hispanic, or Asian), current smoking status (yes/no), and history of psychosis (yes/no) were coded as categorical variables. Finally, each participant’s current medication regimen was reviewed and coded as a binary categorical variable (yes/no) for each of the predominant classes of medication used by subjects in the sample, including antipsychotic and mood-stabilizing drugs.

Continuously distributed demographic and clinical variables were compared between diagnostic groups by analyses of variance (ANOVAs), while categorical demographic and clinical variables were compared between the groups by χ2-tests. These analyses were conducted in Stata SE software, version 9.2 (StataCorp; College Station, TX)

mRNA Sample Acquisition, Stabilization, Isolation, and Storage

After completing the DIGS interview, subjects were scheduled to provide a 10-ml sample of blood on a subsequent visit. To control for potential environmental (e.g., diet) and biological (e.g., circadian) influences on gene expression, all blood draws were performed in the morning after subjects fasted overnight. Each blood sample was collected into an EDTA-coated collection tube and immediately transferred to an RNase-free laboratory, where all subsequent procedures took place. The blood sample was passed over a LeukoLOCK™ filter, which was flushed with PBS and then fully saturated with RNAlater® [43]. Each LeukoLOCK™ filter, containing bound, isolated, stabilized, and purified white blood cells, was sealed and stored in a sterile box at -20°C. Once mRNA samples were acquired from all 34 subjects, the entire batch of samples was processed to isolate mRNA. Eluted mRNA samples were stored at -20°C until transferred to the GeneChip™ Microarray Core (San Diego, CA) for quality assurance and microarray hybridization. LeukoLOCK™ filters, RNAlater®, and TRI reagent® were obtained from Applied Biosystems, Inc. (Foster City, CA), while all other reagents and supplies were obtained from VWR International, LLC (West Chester, PA) unless otherwise specified.

mRNA Quantitation and Quality Assurance

The concentration of mRNA in each DNA-free sample was quantified by the absorption of ultraviolet light at two wavelengths (260 and 280 nm), which was measured on a NanoDrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific; Wilmington, Delaware). The quantity of mRNA in each of the 34 samples far exceeded the minimally sufficient amount required for microarray hybridization. The purity of each mRNA sample was estimated by the 260:280 nm absorbance ratio, with an acceptable range designated a priori as 1.7–2.1. The sample from one BPD subject had a value below this range and thus was excluded from further analyses. The quality of each mRNA sample was quantified by the RNA Integrity Number (RIN) [44], which was determined on an RNA 6000 Labchip Kit on an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies, Inc.; Santa Clara, CA). According to convention [44], a RIN of 6.0 or greater was deemed to be indicative of acceptable quality. The samples from one BPD subject and two CNT subjects had values below 6.0 and thus were excluded from further analyses. A total of 30 subjects (SCZ, n=13; BPD, n=9; CNT, n=8) provided samples with acceptable levels of mRNA quantity, purity, and quality, which were then assayed on GeneChip® Human Exon 1.0 ST Arrays (Affymetrix, Inc.; Santa Clara, CA) per the “Whole Transcript (WT) Sense Target Labeling Assay” protocol [45] using 1 μg of total RNA from each sample.

Microarray Data Import, Normalization, Transformation, and Summarization

Partek® Genomics Suite software, version 6.3 © 2008 (Partek Incorporated; St. Louis, MO), was utilized for all analytic procedures performed on microarray scan data. First, interrogating probes from the most conservative “Core” probe set were imported. According to the manufacturer, probes in this set “are supported with the most reliable evidence from RefSeq and full length mRNA GenBank records containing complete CDS (coding sequence) information” [46]. Corrections for background signal were applied using the robust multi-array average (RMA) method [47]. The set of 30 GeneChips was standardized using quan-tile normalization, and expression levels of each probe underwent log-2 transformation to yield distributions of data that more closely approximated normality. As each exon was typically measured by multiple probe sets, summari- zation of redundant probe sets was obtained by median polish. According to convention [48], probe sets with a maximum signal:noise ratio of less than 3.0 were excluded from subsequent analyses.

Microarray Data Analyses

Five sets of comparisons of diagnostic groups were performed, as follows: 1) BPD vs. CNT; 2) SCZ vs. CNT; 3) BPD vs. SCZ; 4) BPD+SCZ vs. CNT; and 5) subjects with a history of psychosis [PSYCH(+), which included all SCZ subjects and six of the nine BPD subjects] vs. subjects with no history of psychosis [PSYCH(−), which included all CNT subjects and the remaining three BPD subjects].

The principal analyses of these data were designed to detect expressed genes (i.e., full-length mRNA transcripts) that were significantly different in constitution between diagnostic groups, which might indicate different rates or types of alternative splicing events between them. These analyses compared groups of interest on the mean expression level of all exons in each gene on a gene-by-gene basis through analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) and inspection of interaction terms. Four classes of factors were included in each ANCOVA model. First, we included diagnostic group as the primary factor of interest. Next, we included potentially important background biological characteristics of the subjects, including age, sex, and ancestry. Third, we included variables that accounted for expected (and ultimately observed) differences between the groups in their current rates of smoking and use of prescribed psychotropic medications. Comparisons involving the SCZ group included a variable indexing current use of an antipsychotic medication, while comparisons involving the BPD group included a variable to indicate whether or not each subject was currently on a mood-stabilizer; analyses that involved both patient groups included both medication indicator variables. Lastly, we included a series of factors that allowed for the detection of alternate splicing events. Since not all exons in a gene express at the same level, exon identity (ID) was added to the model to account for exon-to-exon differences. Since multiple measurements (on the multiple exons) come from the same subject, subject ID was added to the model to accommodate the assumption of independence that is fundamental to ANCOVA. The last, most critical term included was the interaction of exon ID with diagnostic group, which allowed for the detection of differences in the expression of any exons in the different diagnostic groups [49].

Once a gene was identified as being influenced by a significant diagnostic group-by-exon ID interaction (indicative of alternative splicing), post-hoc comparisons were made between the groups to identify dysregulated exons in these genes by simply comparing diagnostic groups on the mean expression level of each individual exon using ANCOVAs. These analyses included the same factors and interaction terms described above for whole-gene analyses, except for those factors that enabled the detection of alternate splicing (i.e., exon identity and its interaction with diagnostic group). These analyses were useful for identifying which exons contributed to or accounted for the significance of alternative splicing events identified in the principal omnibus analyses.

After all quality-control procedures were executed, 21,866 full-length gene transcripts and 232,448 exons were included in the analyses. Due to the large number of statistical tests to be performed, the probability of committing type-I errors (i.e., finding false-positive results) in this study was greatly inflated. We addressed the threat of inflation of the type-I-error rate in three ways. The first method was statistical, as we controlled family-wise error rates (FWERs) at 5% using Bonferroni corrections and estimated the false-discovery rate (FDR) for all comparisons (expressed as q-values, or the proportion of findings at a given significance level that are expected to be false discoveries). In general, this approach followed the guidelines provided by Mirnics et al. [50], with the exception that we did not filter genes based on any fold-change criterion, since it is not empirically known (nor would it be expected) that any fold-change criterion is either universally applicable to all genes or is biologically meaningful. Secondly, we required a significant interaction of diagnostic group and exon ID in omnibus analyses of full-length gene transcripts before comparing the expression levels of individual exons between groups. The third method was by data reduction through secondary analyses of groups of genes: after performing each type of analysis, the generated lists of significantly alternatively spliced genes were subjected to the DAVID algorithm [51] to determine if they were enriched for genes that aggregated in the same biological pathways (defined by BioCarta- or KEGG [52]), represented similar ontologies (defined by GOC [53]), or exhibited common protein domains (defined by InterPro [54] or PIR [55]).

RESULTS

Demographic, Substance Use, and Clinical Variables

The three ascertained diagnostic groups were comparable on demographic variables (Table 1). No significant differences were observed between SCZ, BPD, and CNT groups on age (p=0.788), sex (p=0.788), or ancestry (p=0.264). The number of current smokers differed significantly between the groups (p=0.003), with the CNT group having significantly fewer current smokers than either the SCZ group (χ2(1)=11.748, p=0.001) or the BPD group (χ2(1)= 6.296, p=0.012); however, notably, the rate of smoking did not differ between SCZ and BPD groups (χ2(1)=1.119, p=0.290).

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics by Diagnostic Group

Diagnostic Group Omnibus
Variable BPD (n=9) SCZ (n=13) CNT (n=8) Test Statistic p
Age: mean years (s.d.) 42 (8) 44 (9) 45 (7) F(2,27)=0.240 0.788
Sex: female n (%) 2 (22) 4 (31) 3 (38) χ2(2)=0.477 0.788
Ancestry: n (%) χ2(6)=7.654 0.264
 European 7 (78) 5 (39) 5 (63)
 African 1 (11) 6 (46) 1 (12)
 Hispanic 0 (0) 2 (15) 1 (12)
 Asian 1 (11) 0 (0) 1 (12)
Current Smoker: n (%) 5 (56) 10 (77) 0 (0) χ2(2)=11.880 0.003
Current Medication Use: n (%)
 Antipsychotic 5 (56) 12 (92) 0 (0) χ2(2)=17.191 <0.001
 Mood Stabilizer 7 (78) 2 (15) 0 (0) χ2(2)=14.534 0.001
History of Psychosis: n (%) 6 (67) 13 (100) 0 (0) χ2(2)=21.388 <0.001

As expected, the groups also differed in their rates of use of antipsychotic (p<0.001) and mood-stabilizing medications (p=0.001). The rate of use of antipsychotic medication was higher in the SCZ group than in either the BPD group (χ2(1)=4.090, p=0.043) or, obviously, the CNT group (χ2(1)= 17.231, p<0.001), and the BPD group also used this class of medications at a higher rate than did the CNT group (χ2(1)=6.296, p=0.012). Mood stabilizers were used at a higher rate in the BPD group than in either the SCZ group (χ2(1)=8.564; p=0.003) or the CNT group (c2(1)=10.578, p=0.001), but the SCZ and CNT groups did not differ significantly in their rates of use of these medications (χ2(1)=1.360, p=0.243).

Lastly, the rate of lifetime psychotic symptoms differed significantly by diagnostic group (p<0.001). As a function of our ascertainment scheme and exclusion criteria, the CNT group contained no subjects with a history of psychosis, which was a significant difference from both the SCZ group (χ2(1)=21.000; p<0.001) and the BPD group (χ2(1)=8.242; p=0.004). All subjects in the SCZ group had a history of psychosis, whereas only two-thirds of the subjects in the BPD group reported such symptoms (χ2(1)=5.018; p=0.025).

Microarray Analyses: Alternatively Spliced Genes and Dysregulated Exons

Tables 26 provide information on genes that were found to be influenced by a Bonferroni-corrected significant interaction of diagnostic group and exon ID, indicative of differential patterns and/or rates of alternative splicing between the groups. Supplementary Tables 15 provide the individual significantly dysregulated exons of these genes which may have contributed to or accounted for the significant alternative splicing event(s) detected in each gene. In each table, the genes are sorted by p-values in ascending order, with the most significantly alternatively spliced gene at the top.

Table 2.

Alternatively Spliced Genes: Bipolar Disorder (BPD) vs. Control (CNT)

Gene Gene Chromosomal Accession Transcript Probe Diagnostic Group-x-Exon ID Interaction
Symbol Product Locus Number ID Sets (n) F p Adjusted p q
PTK2B protein tyrosine kinase 2 beta 8p21.1 NM_173174 3091301 34 4.396 3.75e−12 8.19e−08 1.26e−11
NCF4 neutrophil cytosolic factor 4, 40kDa 22q13.1 NM_013416 3944543 11 10.114 9.07e−11 1.98e−06 3.05e−10
UBR5 ubiquitin protein ligase E3 component n-recognin 5 8q22 NM_015902 3147321 64 2.822 1.50e−10 3.26e−06 5.03e−10
COG4 component of oligomeric golgi complex 4 16q22.1 NM_015386 3697125 24 4.894 2.60e−10 5.67e−06 8.75e−10
ROD1 regulator of differentiation 1 (S. pombe) 9q32 NM_005156 3220977 18 5.428 4.18e−09 9.13e−05 1.41e−08
C8orf41 chromosome 8 open reading frame 41 8p12 BC066935 3130823 12 7.534 5.58e−09 1.22e−04 1.88e−08
ACTR10 actin-related protein 10 homolog (S. cerevisiae) 14q23 NM_018477 3537813 17 5.429 1.11e−08 2.43e−04 3.74e−08
C18orf10 chromosome 18 open reading frame 10 18q12.2 BC022199 3804358 10 7.891 5.26e−08 1.15e−03 1.77e−07
FLOT2 flotillin 2 17q11-q12 NM_004475 3751121 18 4.594 1.56e−07 3.41e−03 5.25e−07
SFRS2IP splicing factor, arginine/serine-rich 2, interacting protein 12q13.11 NM_004719 3452145 26 3.620 1.77e−07 3.86e−03 5.95e−07
FAM83H family with sequence similarity 83, member H 8q24.3 NM_198488 3157722 11 6.667 1.93e−07 4.20e−03 6.47e−07
SPATA3 spermatogenesis associated 3 2q37.1 BC047704 2531648 13 5.706 2.49e−07 5.44e−03 8.37e−07
LIG1 ligase I, DNA, ATP-dependent 19q13.2-q13.3 NM_000234 3866898 29 3.346 2.68e−07 5.86e−03 9.02e−07
FCAR Fc fragment of IgA, receptor for 19q13.2-q13.4 NM_002000 3841862 12 5.909 4.10e−07 8.95e−03 1.38e−06
GK5 glycerol kinase 5 (putative) 3q23 NM_001039547 2698693 19 4.160 5.53e−07 1.21e−02 1.86e−06
MAMDC4 MAM domain containing 4 9q34.3 NM_206920 3194832 29 3.224 6.49e−07 1.42e−02 2.18e−06
RIOK1 RIO kinase 1 (yeast) 6p24.3 NM_031480 2893721 20 3.807 1.64e−06 3.58e−02 5.51e−06
FBXO34 F-box protein 34 14q22.3 NM_017943 3536786 12 5.396 1.71e−06 3.73e−02 5.74e−06

Table 6.

Alternatively Spliced Genes: History of Psychosis [PSYCH(+)] vs. No History of Psychosis [PSYCH(−)]

Gene Gene Chromosomal Accession Transcript Probe Diagnostic Group-x-Exon ID Interaction
Symbol Product Locus Number ID Sets (n) F p Adjusted p q
SYNE1 spectrin repeat containing, nuclear envelope 1 6q25 NM_033071 2979871 167 2.788 3.41e−27 7.45e−23 8.21e−27
KIAA0460 KIAA0460 1q21.2 BC045623 2358221 22 7.306 2.12e−18 4.63e−14 5.11e−18
VPS13D vacuolar protein sorting 13 homolog D (S. cerevisiae) 1p36.22 NM_015378 2320762 77 2.958 3.67e−15 8.02e−11 8.84e−15
ZYX zyxin 7q32 NM_003461 3029129 15 8.215 9.83e−15 2.15e−10 2.37e−14
CLASP1 cytoplasmic linker associated protein 1 2q14.2-q14.3 NM_015282 2573641 53 3.503 9.92e−15 2.17e−10 2.39e−14
JAK1 Janus kinase 1 (a protein tyrosine kinase) 1p32.3-p31.3 NM_002227 2416522 25 5.425 2.41e−14 5.28e−10 5.81e−14
UBR4 ubiquitin protein ligase E3 component n-recognin 4 1p36.13 NM_020765 2399409 115 2.370 1.31e−13 2.87e−09 3.16e−13
DYNC1H1 dynein, cytoplasmic 1, heavy chain 1 14q32.3-qter NM_001376 3552847 84 2.657 2.97e−13 6.50e−09 7.16e−13
SPG11 spastic paraplegia 11 (autosomal recessive) 15q14 NM_025137 3621948 53 3.138 3.34e−12 7.31e−08 8.05e−12
ESF1 ESF1, nucleolar pre-rRNA processing protein, homolog (S. cerevisiae) 20p12.1 NM_016649 3898224 17 6.048 1.17e−11 2.57e−07 2.82e−11
LRP1 low density lipoprotein-related protein 1 (alpha-2-macroglobulin receptor) 12q13-q14 NM_002332 3417842 105 2.283 1.50e−11 3.28e−07 3.61e−11
UBR2 ubiquitin protein ligase E3 component n-recognin 2 6p21.1 NM_015255 2907190 53 3.007 2.58e−11 5.65e−07 6.22e−11
KIAA0082 KIAA0082 6p21.2 ENST00000373451 2905512 26 4.423 2.72e−11 5.94e−07 6.54e−11
HD huntingtin (Huntington disease) 4p16.3 NM_002111 2715820 89 2.364 7.20e−11 1.57e−06 1.73e−10
ZZEF1 zinc finger, ZZ-type with EF-hand domain 1 17p13.2 NM_015113 3741875 70 2.600 7.47e−11 1.63e−06 1.80e−10
UTRN utrophin 6q24 NM_007124 2929168 74 2.521 1.10e−10 2.41e−06 2.65e−10
EIF4EBP3 eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E binding protein 3 5q31.3 NM_003732 2831719 64 2.675 1.18e−10 2.59e−06 2.84e−10
DSC2 desmocollin 2 18q12.1 NM_004949 3802980 22 4.557 3.40e−10 7.43e−06 8.17e−10
HIPK2 homeodomain interacting protein kinase 2 7q32-q34 NM_022740 3075778 19 4.993 3.87e−10 8.45e−06 9.29e−10
HERC1 hect d domain and RCC1 (CHC1)-like domain (RLD) 1 15q22 NM_003922 3628650 87 2.303 4.59e−10 1.00e−05 1.10e−09
MLL3 myeloid/lymphoid or mixed-lineage leukemia 3 7q36.1 NM_170606 3080033 69 2.514 5.09e−10 1.11e−05 1.22e−09
MDN1 MDN1, midasin homolog (yeast) 6q15 NM_014611 2964350 119 2.054 6.32e−10 1.38e−05 1.52e−09
DIP2A DIP2 disco-interacting protein 2 homolog A (Drosophila) 21q22.3 NM_015151 3924674 42 3.077 1.09e−09 2.39e−05 2.62e−09
FAM62B family with sequence similarity 62 (C2 domain containing) 7q36.3 NM_020728 3082248 31 3.581 1.25e−09 2.72e−05 2.99e−09
C1orf198 chromosome 1 open reading frame 198 1q42.13-q43 AK096166 2460325 17 5.135 1.48e−09 3.24e−05 3.56e−09
SMG5 Smg-5 homolog, nonsense mediated mRNA decay factor (C. elegans) 1q21.2 NM_015327 2438042 31 3.562 1.50e−09 3.28e−05 3.60e−09
EIF2C4 eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2C, 4 1p34.3 NM_017629 2330002 28 3.766 1.51e−09 3.30e−05 3.62e−09
SPEN spen homolog, transcriptional regulator (Drosophila) 1p3 NM_015001 2322103 35 3.321 1.85e−09 4.04e−05 4.43e−09
ARHGAP25 Rho GTPase activating protein 25 2p14 NM_014882 2486927 13 6.088 2.65e−09 5.78e−05 6.34e−09
ATXN7 ataxin 7 3p21.1-p12 NM_000333 2627390 23 4.099 3.71e−09 8.11e−05 8.89e−09
VPS13B vacuolar protein sorting 13 homolog B (yeast) 8q22.2 NM_017890 3108901 74 2.341 3.88e−09 8.48e−05 9.29e−09
ZFX zinc finger protein, X-linked Xp21.3 NM_003410 3971923 7 10.235 3.94e−09 8.61e−05 9.43e−09
FCHSD1 FCH and double SH3 domains 1 5q31.3 NM_033449 2878778 24 3.972 4.48e−09 9.79e−05 1.07e−08
MMP27 matrix metallopeptidase 27 11q24 NM_022122 3388730 10 7.326 4.55e−09 9.95e−05 1.09e−08
ARHGAP27 Rho GTPase activating protein 27 17q21.31 NM_199282 3759778 18 4.727 4.95e−09 1.08e−04 1.19e−08
DOCK5 dedicator of cytokinesis 5 8p21.2 NM_024940 3090512 67 2.401 6.79e−09 1.48e−04 1.62e−08
PLEC1 plectin 1, intermediate filament binding protein 500kDa 8q24 NM_201380 3157901 60 2.505 7.19e−09 1.57e−04 1.72e−08
MYCBP2 MYC binding protein 2 13q22 NM_015057 3518496 97 2.096 7.76e−09 1.70e−04 1.86e−08
ISCU iron-sulfur cluster scaffold homolog (E. coli) 12q24.1 NM_014301 3430776 9 7.769 8.77e−09 1.92e−04 2.10e−08
BIRC6 baculoviral IAP repeat-containing 6 (apollon) 2p22-p21 NM_016252 2476219 85 2.187 8.83e−09 1.93e−04 2.11e−08
MAP3K5 mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase 5 6q22.33 NM_005923 2975867 34 3.215 9.09e−09 1.99e−04 2.17e−08
TRERF1 transcriptional regulating factor 1 6p21.1-p12.1 NM_033502 2954025 32 3.281 1.28e−08 2.79e−04 3.05e−08
NOTCH2 Notch homolog 2 (Drosophila) 1p13-p11 NM_024408 2431112 37 3.043 1.43e−08 3.12e−04 3.41e−08
FAM48A family with sequence similarity 48, member A 13q13.3 NM_017569 3509910 31 3.322 1.44e−08 3.15e−04 3.44e−08
SP100 SP100 nuclear antigen 2q37.1 NM_001080391 2531377 28 3.503 1.45e−08 3.18e−04 3.47e−08
C7orf26 chromosome 7 open reading frame 26 7p22.1 BC005121 2989141 10 6.904 1.60e−08 3.49e−04 3.81e−08
PIP5K3 phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate/phosphatidylinositol5-kinase, type III 2q33.3 NM_015040 2525272 47 2.712 1.72e−08 3.77e−04 4.11e−08
CTTN cortactin 11q13 NM_005231 3338552 27 3.535 1.99e−08 4.34e−04 4.74e−08
YEATS2 YEATS domain containing 2 3q27.1 NM_018023 2655168 39 2.938 1.99e−08 4.35e−04 4.75e−08
PTK2 PTK2 protein tyrosine kinase 2 8q24-qter NM_005607 3156307 35 3.088 2.12e−08 4.63e−04 5.05e−08
INTS3 integrator complex subunit 3 1q21.3 NM_023015 2359817 35 3.080 2.30e−08 5.03e−04 5.49e−08
EIF4G2 eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4 gamma, 2 11p15 NM_001418 3362719 26 3.579 2.50e−08 5.47e−04 5.96e−08
HMGCR 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl- Coenzyme A reductase 5q13.3-q14 NM_000859 2815965 27 3.500 2.64e−08 5.77e−04 6.29e−08
LYRM1 LYR motif containing 1 16p11.2 NM_020424 3651588 9 7.344 2.68e−08 5.87e−04 6.40e−08
NFKB2 nuclear factor of kappa light polypeptide gene enhancer 10q24 NM_001077493 3261643 24 3.731 2.69e−08 5.88e−04 6.42e−08
ASXL2 additional sex combs like 2 (Drosophila) 2p24.1 NM_018263 2544925 23 3.819 2.75e−08 6.02e−04 6.56e−08
CR1 complement component (3b/4b) receptor 1 (Knops blood group) 1q32 NM_000651 2377332 19 4.272 2.81e−08 6.15e−04 6.70e−08
SRRM2 serine/arginine repetitive matrix 2 16p13.3 NM_016333 3645253 40 2.873 2.84e−08 6.21e−04 6.77e−08
PTPN1 protein tyrosine phosphatase, non-receptor type 1 20q13 NM_002827 3888721 20 4.120 3.21e−08 7.01e−04 7.64e−08
TPR translocated promoter region (to activated MET oncogene) 1q25 NM_003292 2448232 51 2.563 3.79e−08 8.29e−04 9.02e−08
MACF1 microtubule-actin crosslinking factor 1 1p32-p31 NM_012090 2331213 115 1.923 3.93e−08 8.59e−04 9.35e−08
JARID1C jumonji, AT rich interactive domain 1C Xp11.22-p11.21 NM_004187 4009062 31 3.208 4.15e−08 9.08e−04 9.88e−08
ITSN2 intersectin 2 2pter-p25.1 NM_006277 2544238 50 2.571 4.58e−08 1.00e−03 1.09e−07
DFFB DNA fragmentation factor, 40kDa, beta polypeptide 1p36.3 NM_004402 2317512 13 5.311 5.97e−08 1.31e−03 1.42e−07
TTC15 tetratricopeptide repeat domain 15 2p25.3 NM_016030 2467691 20 4.020 5.98e−08 1.31e−03 1.42e−07
NPAL3 NIPA-like domain containing 3 1p36.12-p35.1 NM_020448 2325410 18 4.259 6.90e−08 1.51e−03 1.64e−07
ABCA1 ATP-binding cassette, sub-family A (ABC1), member 1 9q3 NM_005502 3218528 55 2.446 6.90e−08 1.51e−03 1.64e−07
EIF4G3 eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4 gamma, 3 1p36.12 NM_003760 2400373 47 2.603 7.31e−08 1.60e−03 1.74e−07
RBM26 RNA binding motif protein 26 13q31.1 NM_022118 3519119 23 3.680 7.36e−08 1.61e−03 1.75e−07
PRKAR2A protein kinase, cAMP-dependent, regulatory, type II, alpha 3p21.3-p21.2 NM_004157 2673730 16 4.559 7.91e−08 1.73e−03 1.88e−07
ADRBK1 adrenergic, beta, receptor kinase 1 11q13.1 NM_001619 3336801 27 3.364 8.09e−08 1.77e−03 1.92e−07
NUP214 nucleoporin 214kDa 9q34.1 NM_005085 3191900 48 2.563 9.17e−08 2.00e−03 2.18e−07
EPHB4 EPH receptor B4 7q22 NM_004444 3064293 23 3.649 9.17e−08 2.01e−03 2.18e−07
SYNE2 spectrin repeat containing, nuclear envelope 2 14q23.2 NM_182914 3539724 134 1.809 9.59e−08 2.10e−03 2.28e−07
DDX3X DEAD (Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp) box polypeptide 3, X-linked Xp11 NM_001356 3974838 20 3.939 9.88e−08 2.16e−03 2.34e−07
EP400 E1A binding protein p400 12q24.33 NM_015409 3438617 63 2.295 1.05e−07 2.31e−03 2.50e−07
HERC2 hect domain and RLD 2 15q13 NM_004667 3614901 57 2.384 1.06e−07 2.31e−03 2.51e−07
SMG7 Smg-7 homolog, nonsense mediated mRNA decay factor (C. elegans) 1q25 NM_173156 2371255 31 3.106 1.07e−07 2.34e−03 2.54e−07
PRKDC protein kinase, DNA-activated, catalytic polypeptide 8q11 NM_001081640 3134034 99 1.968 1.13e−07 2.47e−03 2.68e−07
CENTB2 centaurin, beta 2 3q29 NM_012287 2712040 26 3.387 1.14e−07 2.49e−03 2.71e−07
HSPH1 heat shock 105kDa/110kDa protein 1 13q12.3 NM_006644 3508330 26 3.387 1.15e−07 2.51e−03 2.72e−07
NFAT5 Nuclear factor of activated T-cells 5, tonicity-responsive 16q22.1 NM_138714 3666779 39 2.781 1.17e−07 2.55e−03 2.77e−07
CCNT1 cyclin T1 12pter-qter NM_001240 3453218 12 5.431 1.23e−07 2.68e−03 2.91e−07
LRBA LPS-responsive vesicle trafficking, beach and anchor containing 4q31.3 NM_006726 2789266 65 2.259 1.26e−07 2.75e−03 2.98e−07
HERC3 hect domain and RLD 3 4q21 NM_014606 2735459 27 3.296 1.40e−07 3.07e−03 3.33e−07
RAP1GDS1 RAP1, GTP-GDP dissociation stimulator 1 4q23-q25 NM_021159 2736853 16 4.440 1.44e−07 3.14e−03 3.40e−07
NPL N-acetylneuraminate pyruvate lyase (dihydrodipicolinate synthase) 1q25 NM_030769 2370926 18 4.126 1.45e−07 3.18e−03 3.44e−07
SLC30A6 solute carrier family 30 (zinc transporter), member 6 2p22.3 NM_017964 2476116 17 4.229 1.83e−07 4.00e−03 4.33e−07
AFF1 AF4/FMR2 family, member 1 4q21 NM_005935 2734784 33 2.947 2.03e−07 4.44e−03 4.80e−07
NRD1 nardilysin (N-arginine dibasic convertase) 1p32.2-p32.1 NM_002525 2412529 36 2.829 2.07e−07 4.52e−03 4.89e−07
ST3GAL6 ST3 beta-galactoside alpha-2,3-sialyltransferase 6 3q NM_006100 2633256 15 4.549 2.08e−07 4.54e−03 4.91e−07
NUP133 nucleoporin 133kDa 1q42.13 NM_018230 2459866 32 2.984 2.15e−07 4.70e−03 5.08e−07
ADAR adenosine deaminase, RNA-specific 1q21.1-q21.2 NM_001111 2436754 27 3.234 2.33e−07 5.10e−03 5.51e−07
GOLGA2 golgi autoantigen, golgin subfamily a, 2 9q34.11 NM_004486 3226431 16 4.337 2.40e−07 5.25e−03 5.67e−07
DVL3 dishevelled, dsh homolog 3 (Drosophila) 3q27 NM_004423 2655438 24 3.432 2.42e−07 5.30e−03 5.73e−07
KIAA0319L KIAA0319-like 1p34.2 NM_024874 2406139 31 3.016 2.44e−07 5.32e−03 5.75e−07
COL13A1 collagen, type XIII, alpha 1 10q22 NM_005203 3250486 25 3.352 2.55e−07 5.57e−03 6.02e−07
SAPS3 SAPS domain family, member 3 11q13 NM_018312 3337618 26 3.279 2.68e−07 5.86e−03 6.33e−07
HOOK3 hook homolog 3 (Drosophila) 8p11.21 NM_032410 3096368 20 3.778 2.68e−07 5.86e−03 6.33e−07
GPBP1 GC-rich promoter binding protein 1 5q11.2 NM_022913 2810458 16 4.311 2.73e−07 5.98e−03 6.45e−07
UBE3C ubiquitin protein ligase E3C 7q36.3 NM_014671 3033924 34 2.871 2.87e−07 6.28e−03 6.78e−07
BAZ2B bromodomain adjacent to zinc finger domain, 2B 2q23-q24 NM_013450 2583014 46 2.506 3.37e−07 7.37e−03 7.95e−07
PDDC1 Parkinson disease 7 domain containing 1 11p15.5 NM_182612 3358361 14 4.646 3.39e−07 7.41e−03 8.00e−07
TSC2 tuberous sclerosis 2 16p13.3 NM_000548 3644375 42 2.601 3.41e−07 7.46e−03 8.05e−07
ZDHHC17 zinc finger, DHHC-type containing 17 12q21.2 NM_015336 3423184 21 3.634 3.50e−07 7.65e−03 8.25e−07
PXK PX domain containing serine/threonine kinase 3p14.3 NM_017771 2626167 20 3.732 3.55e−07 7.75e−03 8.36e−07
CHD4 chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 4 12p13 NM_001273 3442054 43 2.568 3.73e−07 8.16e−03 8.79e−07
COL19A1 collagen, type XIX, alpha 1 6q12-q13 NM_001858 2912649 32 2.914 4.15e−07 9.08e−03 9.78e−07
ANKRD28 ankyrin repeat domain 28 3p24.3 NM_015199 2664452 34 2.831 4.26e−07 9.31e−03 1.00e−06
PPT1 palmitoyl-protein thioesterase 1 1p32 NM_000310 2408189 10 5.797 4.50e−07 9.83e−03 1.06e−06
USP34 ubiquitin specific peptidase 34 2p15 NM_014709 2555277 83 2.008 4.83e−07 1.06e−02 1.14e−06
STXBP2 syntaxin binding protein 2 19p13.3-p13.2 NM_006949 3819016 17 4.041 4.93e−07 1.08e−02 1.16e−06
MLL myeloid/lymphoid or mixed-lineage leukemia 11q23 NM_005933 3351385 48 2.434 4.95e−07 1.08e−02 1.16e−06
WDFY3 WD repeat and FYVE domain containing 3 4q21.23 NM_014991 2776372 87 1.973 5.42e−07 1.19e−02 1.28e−06
MAPK14 mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 6p21.3-p21.2 NM_139012 2904877 17 4.021 5.49e−07 1.20e−02 1.29e−06
TRIM33 tripartite motif-containing 33 1p13.1 NM_015906 2429069 28 3.072 5.53e−07 1.21e−02 1.30e−06
ECOP EGFR-coamplified and overexpressed protein 7p11.2 NM_030796 3051655 10 5.715 5.77e−07 1.26e−02 1.36e−06
LMTK2 lemur tyrosine kinase 2 7q21.3 NM_014916 3014159 27 3.121 5.80e−07 1.27e−02 1.36e−06
MGAM maltase-glucoamylase (alpha-glucosidase) 7q34 NM_004668 3028011 36 2.729 5.85e−07 1.28e−02 1.37e−06
DLL1 delta-like 1 (Drosophila) 6q27 NM_005618 2986350 15 4.310 6.34e−07 1.39e−02 1.49e−06
ARHGAP26 Rho GTPase activating protein 26 5q31 NM_015071 2833286 29 3.002 6.42e−07 1.40e−02 1.51e−06
HCP5 HLA complex P5 6p21.3 NM_006674 2902326 9 6.127 6.96e−07 1.52e−02 1.64e−06
VPS39 vacuolar protein sorting 39 homolog (S. cerevisiae) 15q NM_015289 3620457 31 2.898 7.10e−07 1.55e−02 1.67e−06
IVNS1ABP influenza virus NS1A binding protein 1q25.1-q31.1 NM_006469 2448073 21 3.517 7.44e−07 1.63e−02 1.75e−06
KIAA0746 KIAA0746 4p15.2 ENST00000264868 2764192 32 2.851 7.44e−07 1.63e−02 1.75e−06
ITGA2B integrin, alpha 2b 17q21.32 NM_000419 3759137 31 2.892 7.54e−07 1.65e−02 1.77e−06
NPEPL1 aminopeptidase-like 1 20q13.32 NM_024663 3891048 18 3.820 8.00e−07 1.75e−02 1.88e−06
FCER1G Fc fragment of IgE, high affinity I, receptor for; gamma 1q23 NM_004106 2363562 6 8.586 8.52e−07 1.86e−02 2.00e−06
ZFYVE26 zinc finger, FYVE domain containing 26 14q24.1 NM_015346 3569441 51 2.337 8.61e−07 1.88e−02 2.02e−06
XYLT1 xylosyltransferase I 16p12.3 NM_022166 3682445 15 4.243 8.67e−07 1.90e−02 2.03e−06
TMEM87A transmembrane protein 87A 15q15 ENST00000389834 3620515 18 3.778 1.01e−06 2.21e−02 2.37e−06
CSNK1G2 casein kinase 1, gamma 2 19p13.3 NM_001319 3816153 12 4.857 1.03e−06 2.26e−02 2.42e−06
KIAA0372 KIAA0372 5q15 ENST00000358746 2867693 46 2.416 1.05e−06 2.29e−02 2.45e−06
DDX58 DEAD (Asp-Glu-Ala-Asp) box polypeptide 58 9p12 NM_014314 3203086 22 3.345 1.32e−06 2.88e−02 3.09e−06
ERBB2IP erbb2 interacting protein 5q12.3 NM_018695 2812435 30 2.872 1.32e−06 2.89e−02 3.09e−06
ZNF638 zinc finger protein 638 2p13.2-p13.1 NM_014497 2488114 39 2.561 1.32e−06 2.89e−02 3.10e−06
CPD carboxypeptidase D 17q11.2 NM_001304 3716411 32 2.786 1.36e−06 2.96e−02 3.17e−06
GGA2 golgi associated, gamma adaptin ear containing, ARF binding protein 2 16p12 NM_015044 3685183 28 2.958 1.41e−06 3.08e−02 3.30e−06
DPP9 dipeptidyl-peptidase 9 19p13.3 NM_139159 3846926 24 3.185 1.45e−06 3.17e−02 3.40e−06
CREBBP CREB binding protein (Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome) 16p13 NM_004380 3677795 43 2.451 1.50e−06 3.28e−02 3.51e−06
CDC2L5 cell division cycle 2-like 5 7p13 NM_003718 2998536 30 2.857 1.51e−06 3.30e−02 3.53e−06
INPP5D inositol polyphosphate-5-phosphatase, 145kDa 2q37.1 NM_005541 2532699 25 3.112 1.55e−06 3.39e−02 3.62e−06
PIGT phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class T 20q12-q13.12 NM_015937 3886889 14 4.287 1.62e−06 3.54e−02 3.79e−06
JMJD2A jumonji domain containing 2A 1p34.1 NM_014663 2333429 27 2.992 1.63e−06 3.56e−02 3.81e−06
NCAPD3 non-SMC condensin II complex, subunit D3 11q25 NM_015261 3399545 39 2.538 1.69e−06 3.69e−02 3.95e−06
VPS41 vacuolar protein sorting 41 homolog (S. cerevisiae) 7p1 NM_014396 7385683 27 2.972 1.90e−06 4.16e−02 4.44e−06
CRAT carnitine acetyltransferase 9q34.1 NM_000755 3226844 19 3.548 1.99e−06 4.35e−02 4.65e−06
PLXNC1 plexin C1 12q23.3 NM_005761 3426502 32 2.741 2.05e−06 4.47e−02 4.78e−06
ACSL3 acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 3 2q34-q35 NM_004457 2529546 20 3.442 2.10e−06 4.60e−02 4.91e−06
PDS5A PDS5, regulator of cohesion maintenance, homolog A (S. cerevisiae) 4p14 NM_015200 2766588 41 2.466 2.13e−06 4.65e−02 4.97e−06
NNT nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase 5p13.1-cen NM_012343 2808438 27 2.956 2.16e−06 4.73e−02 5.05e−06
TBC1D5 TBC1 domain family, member 5 3p24.3 NM_014744 2664891 23 3.193 2.22e−06 4.86e−02 5.19e−06
EML4 echinoderm microtubule associated protein like 4 2p22-p2 NM_019063 2478748 30 2.811 2.25e−06 4.91e−02 5.25e−06
MLL2 myeloid/lymphoid or mixed-lineage leukemia 2 12q12-q14 NM_003482 3453592 80 1.949 2.26e−06 4.93e−02 5.27e−06
PTPRJ protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type, J 11p11.2 NM_002843 3329983 29 2.854 2.26e−06 4.94e−02 5.27e−06
TOP3A topoisomerase (DNA) III alpha 17p12-p11.2 NM_004618 3748262 25 3.061 2.26e−06 4.95e−02 5.28e−06

BPD vs. CNT

When comparing the BPD and CNT groups, the expression levels of 18 different genes (out of 21,866 full-length transcripts surveyed) surpassed a stringent, Bonferroni-corrected threshold for significance of the interaction between diagnostic group and exon ID (Table 2). Supplementary Table 1 identifies the 33 individual exons of these 18 genes that were nominally significantly dysregulated (p<0.05) between the two groups; however, due to the large number of comparisons made at the exon level (232,448) and the consequent severity of the adjustment for multiple testing, the dysregulation of no individual exon nor any of those discussed in subsequent comparisons remained significant after Bonferroni correction. Relative to the CNT group, 19 of these exons were significantly down-regulated in the BPD group while the remaining 14 were up-regulated; this proportion of up- and down-regulated exons did not differ from the ratio that might be expected by chance (binomial p=0.095).

A prototypical example of differential splicing between the two groups is illustrated in Fig. (1), which shows each group’s pattern of expression of all exons of PTK2B, the gene with the smallest p-value for the interaction of diagnostic group (BPD vs. CNT) and exon ID. BPD and CNT groups exhibited highly comparable raw levels of expression of most exons of PTK2B, but intensities of some exons appeared to diverge, especially in the vicinity of two known splicing sites. When controlling for all covariates, this divergence was statistically significant at exons 2 (p=0.010), 31 (p=0.007), and 33 (p=0.027), while the apparent decrease in expression of exon 29 (a known alternatively spliced exon) in the BPD group was not significant (p=0.299).

Fig. (1). Alternative Splicing of PTK2B: BPD vs. CNT.

Fig. (1)

The figure illustrates a prototypical example of differential expression of alternatively spliced gene variants between two groups; in this case, BPD and CNT groups. The illustrated gene, PTK2B, produced the smallest p-value (8.19e−08) for the interaction of diagnostic group (BPD vs. CNT) and exon ID. The top panel shows the four known splice variants of the gene, while the bottom panel plots the raw microarray expression levels (signal intensities, unadjusted for covariates) of individual exons in the BPD and CNT groups (red triangles and blue squares, respectively). The lines representing signal intensity in each diagnostic group closely correspond to each other over most of the length of the gene, but intensities of some exons appeared to diverge, especially in the area of two known splicing sites. When controlling for all covariates, this divergence was statistically significant (*) at exons 2 (p=0.010), 31 (p=0.007), and 33(p=0.027), while the apparent decrease in expression of exon 29 (a known alternatively spliced exon) in the BPD group was not significant (p=0.299).

Results such as that observed for exons 2, 31, and 33 suggest several possibilities, including: 1) subjects in the BPD group, on average, express less of the known splice variants of PTK2B that include this exon (this is supported by the significantly lower mean expression level of this exon); 2) some subjects in the BPD group do not express much or any of the splice variants containing this exon, while other individuals in the BPD group express such splice variants at normal levels (this is supported by the larger-than-average standard error of expression of this exon); 3) the groups do not differ in their rates or levels of expression of different splice variants, but this exon somehow is selectively inhibited in its expression; 4) the BPD group expresses less of some novel, unrecognized splice variant(s) that include this exon; or, conceivably, 5) a type-I error has occurred. Against the last option, the q-values for PTK2B and the other 17 genes listed in Table 2 were found to range from 1.26e−11 to 5.74e−06, suggesting that these 18 results have a very low probability of representing false-discoveries. The genes on this list did not represent an enrichment of any particular ontology, pathway, or protein domain.

SCZ vs. CNT

Only eight genes surpassed the Bonferroni-corrected threshold for significance of the diagnostic group-by-exon ID interaction when comparing SCZ and CNT groups (Table 3). The expected FDRs for these genes ranged from 4.18e−10 to 7.57e−06. The 20 individual significantly dysregulated exons of these eight genes are presented in Supplementary Table 2. In contrast to the comparison of BPD and CNT groups, in which the slight majority (19/33) of significantly dysregulated exons were down-regulated in BPD, almost all (18/20) of the exons that were significantly dysregulated in the SCZ group were down-regulated. The chance of observing this ratio of down-regulated to up-regulated genes was extremely low (binomial p=1.81e−4).

Table 3.

Alternatively Spliced Genes: Schizophrenia (SCZ) vs. Control (CNT)

Gene Gene Chromosomal Accession Transcript Probe Diagnostic Group-x-Exon ID Interaction
Symbol Product Locus Number ID Sets (n) F p Adjusted p q
IRAK4 interleukin-1 receptor- associated kinase 4 12q12 NM_016123 3412296 16 6.333 1.10e−10 2.41e−06 4.18e−10
CYC1 cytochrome c-1 8q24.3 NM_001916 3120051 8 11.177 6.44e−10 1.41e−05 2.44e−09
CHI3L1 chitinase 3-like 1 (cartilage glycoprotein-39) 1q32.1 NM_001276 2451593 13 6.702 1.77e−09 3.86e−05 6.71e−09
FLJ46321 FLJ46321 protein (FLJ46321), mRNA 9q21.32 ENST00000344803 3176711 9 7.076 2.57e−07 5.60e−03 9.73e−07
ATXN3 ataxin 3 14q24.3-q32.2 NM_004993 3576889 12 5.492 3.54e−07 7.74e−03 1.34e−06
DENND1A DENN/MADD domain containing 1A 9q33.2 NM_020946 3224650 20 3.898 3.55e−07 7.75e−03 1.35e−06
S100A12 S100 calcium binding protein A12 1q21 NM_005621 2435981 3 28.983 3.97e−07 8.67e−03 1.51e−06
ARAF v-raf murine sarcoma 3611 viral oncogene homolog Xp11.4-p11.2 NM_001654 3976299 17 3.946 2.00e−06 4.36e−02 7.57e−06

Notably, despite the small number of genes emerging as significant in this comparison, several ontologies were significantly over-represented by these eight genes, including the biological processes “phosphorylation” (p=0.025), “phosphorus metabolism” (p=0.036), “phosphate metabolism” (p=0.036), and “cellular metabolism” (p=0.044), as well as the molecular function “catalytic activity” (p=0.047).

BPD vs. SCZ

The comparison of BPD and SCZ groups revealed 33 genes that were influenced by a Bonferroni-adjusted significant interaction of diagnostic group and exon ID (Table 4). Expected FDRs for these 33 genes were between 9.28e−12 and 5.31e−06. Consistent with the observation of more frequent down-regulation of alternatively spliced exons in the SCZ group than in the BPD (each relative to the CNT group), 75/103 significantly dysregulated exons in this comparison (Supplementary Table 3) were down-regulated in the BPD group relative to the SCZ group; this ratio of down-regulated to up-regulated genes was significantly different from chance expectation (binomial p=4.00e−6). As with the comparison of BPD and CNT groups described above, no ontologies, pathways, or protein domains were significantly over-represented in this gene list.

Table 4.

Alternatively Spliced Genes: Bipolar Disorder (BPD) vs. Schizophrenia (SCZ)

Gene Gene Chromosomal Accession Transcript Probe Diagnostic Group-x-Exon ID Inter−action
Symbol Product Locus Number ID Sets (n) F p Adjusted p q
SLC44A2 solute carrier family 44, member 2 19p13.1 NM_020428 3820612 24 5.217 3.80e−12 8.30e−08 9.28e−12
DDX24 DEAD (Asp-Glu- Ala-Asp) box polypeptide 24 14q32 NM_020414 3577513 15 7.001 3.02e−11 6.60e−07 7.38e−11
FIG4 FIG4 homolog (S. cerevisiae) 6q21 NM_014845 2920962 27 4.340 1.33e−10 2.90e−06 3.24e−10
CTNNB1 catenin (cadherin- associated protein), beta 1, 88kDa 3p21 NM_001904 2618940 18 5.072 3.62e−09 7.90e−05 8.83e−09
ATG16L1 ATG16 autophagy related 16-like 1 (S. cerevisiae) 2q3 NM_030803 2532793 30 3.477 1.86e−08 4.07e−04 4.55e−08
EX-OC7 exocyst complex component 7 17q25.1 NM_001013839 3771336 28 3.566 2.68e−08 5.85e−04 6.53e−08
MAPK14 mitogen-activated protein kinase 14 6p21.3-p21.2 NM_139012 2904877 17 4.832 3.00e−08 6.56e−04 7.32e−08
LTBP1 latent transforming growth factor beta binding protein 1 2p22-p21 NM_206943 2476510 42 2.820 6.38e−08 1.39e−03 1.55e−07
JMJD2A jumonji domain containing 2A 1p34.1 NM_014663 2333429 27 3.513 6.91e−08 1.51e−03 1.68e−07
LE−PRE1 leucine proline-enriched proteoglycan (leprecan) 1 1p3 NM_022356 2409004 29 3.374 7.22e−08 1.58e−03 1.76e−07
MCM4 minichromosome maintenance complex component 4 8q11.2 NM_005914 3097152 23 3.800 9.47e−08 2.07e−03 2.31e−07
EDEM1 ER degradation enhancer, mannosidase alpha-like 1 3p26. NM_014674 2608801 21 4.008 9.70e−08 2.12e−03 2.36e−07
VPS13D vacuolar protein sorting 13 homolog D (S. cerevisiae) 1p36.22 NM_015378 2320762 77 2.172 1.15e−07 2.50e−03 2.79e−07
TMEM120−A transmembrane protein 120A 7q11.23 NM_031925 3057520 13 5.490 1.17e−07 2.56e−03 2.85e−07
ATG2B ATG2 autophagy related 2 homolog B (S. cerevisiae) 14q3 NM_018036 3578278 30 3.233 1.40e−07 3.07e−03 3.42e−07
LEPROT leptin receptor overlapping transcript 1p31.3 NM_017526 2340433 28 3.277 2.51e−07 5.49e−03 6.12e−07
PI4KA phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase, catalytic, alpha 22q11.2 NM_058004 3953724 40 2.721 3.64e−07 7.95e−03 8.85e−07
SASH1− SAM and SH3 domain containing 1 6q24.3 NM_015278 2930243 29 3.127 5.19e−07 1.13e−02 1.26e−06
ENTPD6 ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 6 (putative function) 20p11.2-p11.22 NM_001247 3880706 22 3.614 5.52e−07 1.21e−02 1.34e−06
BSDC1 BSD domain containing 1 1p35.1 NM_018045 2405036 24 3.405 7.17e−07 1.57e−02 1.74e−06
TFR2 transferrin receptor 2 7q22 NM_003227 3064158 18 4.016 7.22e−07 1.58e−02 1.75e−06
TTC15 tetratricopeptide repeat domain 15 2p25.3 NM_016030 2467691 20 3.767 7.35e−07 1.61e−02 1.79e−06
CIRBP cold inducible RNA binding protein 19p13.3 NM_001280 3815649 8 7.210 9.48e−07 2.07e−02 2.30e−06
EI−F4EBP3 eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E binding protein 3 5q31.3 NM_003732 2831719 64 2.178 1.08e−06 2.36e−02 2.63e−06
FLJ13611 hypothetical protein FLJ13611 5q12.3 NM_001093756 2812315 14 4.607 1.15e−06 2.50e−02 2.78e−06
COQ2 coenzyme Q2 homolog,prenyltransferase (yeast) 4q21.23 NM_015697 2775965 13 4.846 1.15e−06 2.52e−02 2.80e−06
C14orf118 chromosome 14 open reading frame 118 14q22.1-q24.3 NM_017926 3544905 15 4.378 1.26e−06 2.74e−02 3.05e−06
UTRN utrophin 6q24 NM_007124 2929168 74 2.063 1.27e−06 2.77e−02 3.08e−06
JA-RID2 jumonji, AT rich interactive domain 2 6p24-p23 NM_004973 2896177 21 3.531 1.59e−06 3.48e−02 3.86e−06
BRD1 bromodomain containing 1 22q13.33 NM_014577 3965314 17 3.980 1.70e−06 3.71e−02 4.12e−06
C18orf10 chromosome 18 open reading frame 10 18q12.2 BC022199 3804358 10 5.706 1.88e−06 4.11e−02 4.57e−06
TNKS tankyrase, TRF1-interacting ankyrin-related ADP-ribose polymerase 8p23.1 NM_003747 3085270 29 2.960 1.94e−06 4.23e−02 4.70e−06
SN−AP29 synaptosomal-associated protein, 29kDa 22q11.21 NM_004782 3937755 11 5.255 2.19e−06 4.78e−02 5.31e−06

BPD+SCZ vs. CNT

When the BPD and SCZ groups were combined and jointly contrasted with the CNT group, 15 genes were found to exhibit significantly different patterns of alternative splicing between the groups after correcting for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni method (Table 5). As with the prior comparisons of diagnostic groups, the expected FDRs among these 15 genes were exceedingly low, ranging from 9.07e−10 to 5.21e−06. Of the 24 exons that were significantly differentially expressed between groups in this comparison (Supplementary Table 4), 15 were up-regulated in the combined BPD+SCZ group relative to the CNT group while the remaining nine exons were significantly down-regulated; however, this ratio did not deviate from chance expectation (p=0.078). The gene list for this comparison was most significantly enriched with genes representing biological processes such as “phosphorus metabolism” (p=0.004) and “phosphate metabolism” (p=0.004), but numerous other broad ontologies were over-represented as well, including the biological processes “development” (p=0.007), “phosphorylation” (p=0.018), “protein modification” (p=0.029), and “metabolism” (p=0.021), and the molecular functions “protein binding” (p=0.020) and “nucleotide binding” (p=0.050).

Table 5.

Alternatively Spliced Genes: Bipolar Disorder (BPD) + Schizophrenia (SCZ) vs. Control (CNT)

Gene Gene Chromosomal Accession Transcript Probe Diagnostic Group-x-Exon ID Interaction
Symbol Product Locus Number ID Sets (n) F p Adjusted p q
VCL vinculin 10q22.1-q23 NM_014000 3820612 37 3.392 2.99e−10 6.53e−06 9.07e−10
PARP10 poly (ADP-ribose)polymerase family, member 10 8q24.3 NM_032789 3577513 20 4.021 5.95e−08 1.30e−03 1.81e−07
IL3 interleukin 3 (colony-stimulating factor, multiple) 5q31.1 NM_000588 2920962 7 8.607 8.71e−08 1.91e−03 2.64e−07
PERQ1 PERQ amino acid rich, with GYF domain 1 7q22 NM_022574 2618940 30 3.107 1.67e−07 3.64e−03 5.05e−07
FLJ46321 FLJ46321 protein (FLJ46321), mRNA 9q21.32 ENST00000344803 2532793 9 6.632 1.78e−07 3.90e−03 5.41e−07
PTPRC protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type, C 1q31-q32 NM_002838 3771336 38 2.754 2.24e−07 4.90e−03 6.79e−07
LIG1 ligase I, DNA, ATP-dependent 19q13.2-q13.3 NM_000234 2904877 29 3.112 2.52e−07 5.50e−03 7.62e−07
CYC1 cytochrome c-1 8q24.3 NM_001916 2476510 8 6.919 4.52e−07 9.89e−03 1.37e−06
SMAD2 SMAD family member 2 18q21.1 NM_005901 2333429 16 4.200 4.75e−07 1.04e−02 1.44e−06
IDH3A isocitrate dehydrogenase 3 (NAD+) alpha 15q25.1-q25.2 NM_005530 2409004 15 4.202 1.05e−06 2.29e−02 3.17e−06
ADRBK1 adrenergic, beta, receptor kinase 1 11q13.1 NM_001619 3097152 27 3.037 1.14e−06 2.49e−02 3.45e−06
SRCAP Snf2-related CBP activator protein 16p11.2 NM_006662 2608801 52 2.294 1.22e−06 2.67e−02 3.70e−06
PLK4 polo-like kinase 4 (Drosophila) 4q28 NM_014264 2320762 19 3.620 1.31e−06 2.87e−02 3.97e−06
KIAA0460 KIAA0460 1q21.2 BC045623 3057520 22 3.312 1.63e−06 3.57e−02 4.94e−06
FLOT2 flotillin 2 17q11-q12 NM_004475 3578278 18 3.682 1.72e−06 3.77e−02 5.21e−06

PSYCH(+) vs. PSYCH(−)

By far, the greatest disparity in patterns of expression of alternatively spliced genes was seen when comparing groups with a different history of psychosis. A total of 156 genes surpassed the Bonferroni-adjusted significance threshold for the interaction of diagnostic group with exon ID when comparing the PSYCH(+) and PSYCH(−) groups (Table 6). These 156 genes had associated FDRs ranging from 8.21e−27 to 5.28e−06. Of the 16,555 nominally significantly dysregulated exons of these 156 genes (Supplementary Table 5), only 64 were down-regulated in the PSYCH(+) group relative to the PSYCH(−) group, while the remaining 16,491 exons were up-regulated; this represented a highly significant departure from the ratio expected by chance (p<1.00e−10).

Many ontologies, pathways, and protein domains were significantly over-represented by alternatively spliced genes in the comparison of PSYCH(+) and PSYCH(−) groups (Table 7). Each of the five ontological terms significantly over-represented by alternatively spliced genes in the comparison of SCZ vs. CNT groups were also significantly over-represented in the comparison of PSYCH(+) vs. PSYCH(−) groups; these included “phosphorylation” (p=0.042), “phosphorus metabolism” (p=0.015), “phosphate metabolism” (p=0.015), “cellular metabolism” (p=0.021), and “catalytic activity” (p=0.009). Of note, genes in the NOTCH signaling pathway were also present in this list at a significantly higher rate than would be expected by chance (p=0.015), as were genes that bind to (p=0.005) or are expressed in (p=0.035) the cytoskeleton, genes involved in the ubiquitin cycle (p=0.047) or having ubiquitin-protein ligase activity (p=0.009), and genes that activate (p=7.50e−04) or regulate (p=5.20e−05) GTPase activity.

Table 7.

Ontologies, Pathways, and Protein Domains Significantly Over-Represented Among Alternatively Spliced Genes: History of Psychosis [PSYCH(+)] vs. No History of Psychosis [PSYCH(−)]

Domain Category Term n (%) of Genes on List p
Ontology Biological Process biopolymer modification 29 (5.2) 1.20e−04
macromolecule metabolism 57 (10.0) 1.40e−04
protein metabolism 46 (8.3) 1.80e−04
cellular macromolecule metabolism 44 (7.9) 1.80e−04
cellular protein metabolism 43 (7.7) 2.70e−04
biopolymer metabolism 39 (7.0) 3.90e−04
protein modification 27 (4.8) 4.50e−04
cellular physiological process 98 (18.0) 4.90e−03
primary metabolism 74 (13.0) 7.50e−03
protein amino acid phosphorylation 12 (2.2) 1.00e−02
cell organization and biogenesis 21 (3.8) 1.30e−02
phosphate metabolism 15 (2.7) 1.50e−02
phosphorus metabolism 15 (2.7) 1.50e−02
cellular metabolism 74 (13.0) 2.10e−02
organ development 10 (1.8) 2.30e−02
cell cycle 12 (2.2) 2.30e−02
regulation of translational initiation 3 (0.5) 2.60e−02
organ morphogenesis 6 (1.1) 2.70e−02
endocytosis 5 (0.9) 2.90e−02
Notch signaling pathway 3 (0.5) 3.00e−02
nuclear organization and biogenesis 2 (0.4) 3.00e−02
organelle organization and biogenesis 13 (2.3) 3.10e−02
metabolism 77 (14.0) 3.80e−02
phosphorylation 12 (2.2) 4.20e−02
protein localization 10 (1.8) 4.30e−02
ubiquitin cycle 9 (1.6) 4.70e−02
Cellular Component intracellular 88 (16.0) 6.10e−05
endomembrane system 10 (1.8) 1.80e−03
eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4F complex 3 (0.5) 2.20e−03
cytoplasm 43 (7.7) 6.20e−03
nuclear envelope 5 (0.9) 7.30e−03
intracellular organelle 70 (13.0) 9.60e−03
organelle 70 (13.0) 9.70e−03
nucleus 44 (7.9) 2.30e−02
cytoskeleton 14 (2.5) 3.50e−02
cell 108 (19.0) 4.00e−02
Molecular Function protein binding 67 (12.0) 8.20e−10
GTPase regulator activity 11 (2.0) 5.20e−05
enzyme regulator activity 15 (2.7) 4.40e−04
GTPase activator activity 7 (1.3) 7.50e−04
binding 103 (19.0) 9.80e−04
zinc ion binding 29 (5.2) 1.00e−03
enzyme activator activity 8 (1.4) 1.40e−03
microtubule binding 4 (0.7) 3.30e−03
protein kinase activity 13 (2.3) 3.70e−03
adenyl nucleotide binding 21 (3.8) 4.30e−03
cytoskeletal protein binding 9 (1.6) 4.70e−03
phosphotransferase activity, alcohol group as acceptor 14 (2.5) 5.50e−03
tubulin binding 4 (0.7) 6.30e−03
ATP binding 20 (3.6) 6.40e−03
ubiquitin-protein ligase activity 8 (1.4) 8.80e−03
catalytic activity 57 (10.0) 9.40e−03
ligase activity 10 (1.8) 1.20e−02
small GTPase regulator activity 6 (1.1) 1.30e−02
transition metal ion binding 29 (5.2) 1.40e−02
cation binding 37 (6.6) 1.60e−02
kinase activity 15 (2.7) 1.60e−02
ion binding 39 (7.0) 1.60e−02
metal ion binding 39 (7.0) 1.60e−02
protein serine/threonine kinase activity 9 (1.6) 1.70e−02
ligase activity, forming carbon-nitrogen bonds 8 (1.4) 2.10e−02
purine nucleotide binding 22 (3.9) 2.50e−02
nucleotide binding 24 (4.3) 3.60e−02
actin binding 6 (1.1) 3.70e−02
transcription cofactor activity 6 (1.1) 4.20e−02
transferase activity 22 (3.9) 4.60e−02
transferase activity, transferring phosphorus-containing groups 15 (2.7) 4.80e−02
Pathway KEGG Pathway notch signaling pathway 4 (0.7) 1.50e−02
Protein Domain InterPro Name Zinc finger, PHD-type 8 (1.4) 1.10e−05
Actin-binding, actinin-type 5 (0.9) 4.50e−05
Bromodomain 5 (0.9) 2.70e−04
Zinc finger, ZZ-type 4 (0.7) 3.20e−04
Spectrin repeat 7 (1.3) 4.10e−04
FY-rich, C-terminal 3 (0.5) 7.50e−04
FY-rich, N-terminal 3 (0.5) 7.50e−04
Involucrin repeat 3 (0.5) 7.50e−04
Regulator of chromosome condensation, RCC1 4 (0.7) 1.00e−03
HECT 4 (0.7) 1.30e−03
Calponin-like actin-binding 5 (0.9) 1.90e−03
Protein kinase 12 (2.2) 2.20e−03
Armadillo-like helical 8 (1.4) 2.90e−03
Tyrosine protein kinase 10 (1.8) 8.10e−03
SET-related region 3 (0.5) 8.90e−03
Serine/threonine protein kinase 10 (1.8) 1.00e−02
Cell surface receptor IPT/TIG 3 (0.5) 2.60e−02
Src homology-3 6 (1.1) 2.70e−02
HEAT 4 (0.7) 3.00e−02
Zinc finger, FYVE-type 3 (0.5) 3.50e−02
Klarsicht/ANC-1/syne-1 homology 2 (0.4) 3.50e−02
Initiation factor eIF-4 gamma, MA3 2 (0.4) 4.20e−02
DEAD/DEAH box helicase, N-terminal 4 (0.7) 4.30e−02
Tyrosine protein kinase, active site 4 (0.7) 4.60e−02
Helicase, C-terminal 4 (0.7) 4.80e−02
Concanavalin A-like lectin/glucanase, subgroup 4 (0.7) 4.90e−02
Plectin repeat 2 (0.4) 4.90e−02
eIF4-gamma/eIF5/eIF2-epsilon 2 (0.4) 4.90e−02
PIR Superfamily SF010337:acute lymphoblastic leukemia protein, ALR type 2 (0.4) 1.00e−02
SF002662:plectin 2 (0.4) 2.00e−02

DISCUSSION

Transcriptomic biomarkers of psychiatric diseases obtained from a query of peripheral tissues that are clinically accessible (e.g., blood cells instead of post-mortem brain tissue) have substantial practical appeal to discern the molecular subtypes of common complex diseases such as major psychosis. To our knowledge, this is the first blood-based spliceome-profiling study of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to be reported. The present study has relevance both as an original exploratory study as well as a new methodological approach in the study of genetic factors that may contribute to disease susceptibility. Beyond these qualities, the study suggests other potential applications of the methodology, such as the study of dynamic host responses to environmental factors/perturbations such as drug treatment or other exposures.

The chief result from this pilot study is the demonstration that exomic and spliceomic profiling can identify transcripts that reliably differentiate groups of psychiatric patients from each other and from non-mentally ill individuals. Second, this pilot study yielded information on numerous specific exons, alternatively spliced genes, and functionally or structurally related groups of those genes that are expressed in varying amounts in the peripheral blood of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or psychosis. Third, from a methodological standpoint, a focus on spliceome-profiling may offer a renewed interest and deeper insights on peripheral tissue markers of central nervous system diseases, an area of scientific inquiry that has thus far lacked from a paucity of transcriptomics-based biomarkers in tissues that are clinically accessible in a form that is also acceptable to patients. Seen in this light, blood-based biomarkers deserve further exploration particularly by taking into account human variation in the spliceome. However, we underscore that the findings presented in this report are exploratory in nature and intended to serve as a baseline inquiry for spliceome-based biomarkers. These results will undoubtedly require replication and the test of triangulation by other independent biomarker technology platforms in different tissues before they can be considered solid leads in the pursuit of biomarkers for these disorders.

With these caveats in mind, several conclusions from this discovery-oriented exploratory study can be distilled. First, a relatively small number of genes display differential patterns of expression of alternative splice variants between diagnostic groups that are reliable after applying stringent corrections for multiple testing. The comparisons producing the fewest such differences were between the CNT group and either of the other ascertained diagnostic groups (SCZ and BPD), which is notable given the vast differences between the groups not just in diagnoses but in variables associated with the disorders (e.g., comorbid conditions, pharmacologic treatment) and potential confounding variables (e.g., smoking). In contrast, a fair number of genes showed differential patterns of expression of alternatively spliced variants between BPD and SCZ groups, which is considerable given their much higher degree of comparability on clinical and potential confounding variables. The largest number of significant differences in splicing patterns was observed when groups were contrasted on their history of psychosis without regard to diagnostic boundaries. Disentangling the source(s) of this enhancement is difficult. For some genes, it may be that the larger sample size of the PSYCH(+) and PSYCH(−) groups relative to any two individual ascertained diagnostic groups allowed some small effects to achieve statistical significance in the former contrast where they otherwise might not in the latter. Alternatively, the phenotype of psychosis simply may be more strongly linked than any particular diagnostic entity to the expression of alternatively spliced genes in PBMCs. Of course, both situations also may be operating concurrently.

A second conclusion can be drawn based on our analyses of biological pathways, ontologies, and protein domains represented by the alternatively spliced genes. Many of the structural or functional categories over-represented by the alternatively spliced genes were very broad in definition (e.g., cellular metabolism or catalytic activity), but some were quite specific and potentially informative. For example, the SCZ and combined BPD+SCZ groups (relative to the CNT group) showed differential splicing of genes linked to phosphorylation, phosphorus metabolism, and phosphate metabolism. Relative to the PSYCH(−) group, the PSYCH (+) group also showed an over-abundance of alternatively spliced genes representing these processes. In addition, the PSYCH(+) group expressed more differentially spliced variants of genes linked to very specific biological processes such as GTPase activity, as well as Notch and ubiquitin pathways, each of which independently has been linked to schizophrenia and/or psychosis previously [20, 5659]. Thus, we conclude that the genes that show differential expression of alternatively spliced variants in schizophrenia or psychosis are not randomly distributed, but aggregate in mechanistically meaningful pathways, some of which are supported by prior work and some of which can foster new hypotheses.

A final (and perhaps most striking) general conclusion to be drawn from this study is that psychosis appears to be marked by a global up-regulation of exons in transcripts expressed in PBMCs. Of the 16,555 exons (in 156 genes) that were significantly differentially expressed in the PSYCH (+) group, 99.6% were up-regulated while just 0.4% were down-regulated. The strength of this result suggests that a systematic process (e.g., down-regulation of splicing factors) may be operating in psychosis, which leads to widespread over-expression of selected exons or more frequent inclusion of those exons in expressed transcripts. Aside from stimulating work to unravel the biological basis for the phenomenon, this finding may encourage the advancement of unidirectional hypotheses in subsequent analyses of splicing patterns in psychosis, which in turn would warrant the use of one-tailed statistical tests and the conservation of inferential power.

Beyond these conclusions, this exploratory study can serve as a useful comparator for future spliceome-wide or candidate-gene analyses of alternative splicing, as well as a replication study for prior reports of alternative splicing in these disorders. Significant changes in the expression of alternatively spliced transcripts in blood or brain tissue samples from schizophrenia patients have been reported for a number of genes, including CAMK2A [60], CTNNA2 [61], DRD3 [62], ERBB4 [36, 38], GRIN1 (NMDARI/NR1) [39], GRM3 [63], and QKI [64]. Further supporting the conceptualization of mRNA expression as perhaps the most basic endophenotype, dysregulated expression of exons in some of these alternatively spliced variants has been shown to be strongly governed by specific cis-acting polymorphisms in the same genes [36, 38, 41, 63]. Conversely, few significant findings have been reported in bipolar disorder; in fact, we could only find one study examining the issue, which reported a non-significant difference in the expression of ISYNA1 splice variants in blood from bipolar disorder patients relative to control subjects [65]. We too failed to find a significant interaction of diagnostic group (BPD vs. CNT) and exon ID for ISYNA1 (p=0.107), but we also failed to find evidence supporting the differential expression of splice variants of any of the genes previously found to be alternatively spliced in schizophrenia as well. Since none of these genes exhibited a Bonferroni-corrected (or even nominally) significant interaction of diagnostic group and exon ID, we did not interrogate specific exons of these genes in our primary analyses reported above. However, post-hoc inspection of the data did reveal nominally significant evidence for dysregulation of one exon in each of CTNNA2 (p=0.030), DRD3 (p=0.005), ERBB4 (p=0.040), and QKI (p=0.035).

We caution the reader that several caveats must be considered in comparing our results to those described above. First, in many instances different tissues are being compared (PBMCs and postmortem brain). Although expression of many full-length gene transcripts is known to be reasonably well correlated [Spearman’s rho(ρ)=0.73] between blood and brain tissue [25], it is not known if this correspondence extends to individual exons or all splice variants of each gene. In addition, while the overall correlation between blood and brain gene expression is reasonably high, the correlation varies widely for individual genes, with some showing near perfect correspondence and others showing little or no correlation. Although this has yet to be demonstrated across the whole human spliceome, similar results may be expected, and thus it is possible that the discrepancies between prior studies and our own are driven by tissue-specificity of splicing and expression of the evaluated genes. Second, our results for these genes were derived by microar-ray whereas the original discoveries were typically made by quantitative reverse-transcription PCR; thus, it is possible that our failure to provide independent replication of these discoveries was due to a lack of sensitivity of our chosen platform. Third, and of particular relevance to the results of Sartorius et al. [63], Silberberg et al. [38], Atz et al. [41] and Law et al. [36], is the fact that we did not genotype the DNA polymorphisms that these investigators showed to regulate gene expression and splicing; thus, it is possible that we may have replicated their findings if we controlled for the governing DNA polymorphisms these authors identified. Fourth, our sample size was relatively small, which may have prohibited us from detecting effects that may have attained statistical significance in a larger sample, and this problem was likely compounded by the stringency of the corrections for multiple testing that we applied. Fifth, we emphasize that many factors (and combinations of factors) would be expected to influence gene expression or alternate splicing levels in studies of chronic illnesses where patient samples often reflect cumulative exposures from drug treatment, diet, smoking, and co-morbid disease states in addition to those conferred by diagnostic categories. In particular, there was a significant disparity in smoking status between our various diagnostic groups, with no present smokers in the CNT group compared to greater than 50% of present smokers in both the BPD and SCZ groups. If smoking status significantly influences the rates and types of splicing events that occur in peripheral blood cells, then it is possible that some of the observed differences we ascribed to diagnoses may actually be type-I errors, and instead should be attributed solely to the diagnostic-group differences in smoking rates. The present study was limited in our ability to model all potentially influential covariates by constraints on our sample size. On the other hand, even with a large study sample, confounding variables such as differences in comedication use between diagnostic groups and healthy controls are difficult to avoid. Hence, future spliceome-profiling studies in drug-naive (and non-smoking) patients or individuals who present with a first episode of psychosis could conceivably provide invaluable additional insights to further extend the observations from the present exploratory investigation. Lastly, we note however that our findings in the present study were reconciled with an analysis of the ontologies, the biological pathways and the protein domains significantly over-represented among the alternatively spliced genes, several of which support prior discoveries.

Other alternatively spliced genes identified in our study do not necessarily replicate prior findings of altered expression of splice variants of candidate genes, but in another manner provide support for involvement of these genes in the disorder. For example, we found significantly differential expression of alternatively constituted CHI3L1 transcripts in the SCZ and CNT groups, which was accounted for by decreased expression of 11 different exons in the SCZ group. This result is highly consistent with results from Zhao et al., who first discovered that schizophrenia-associated risk haplotypes of CHI3L1 were associated with lower trans- criptional activity and lower expression of the gene [66]; however, the effect of the implicated polymorphisms of this gene on the expression of particular splice variants remains to be determined. Polymorphisms in BRD1 [67], IL3 [68, 69], JARID2 [70], MAPK14 [71], and SNAP29 [72, 73] have previously been associated with risk for schizophrenia and also appear to exhibit alternative splicing in the SCZ group of the present study relative to either the CNT or BPD groups. Again, whether these genetic associations and patterns of alternative splicing reflect a common mechanistic link to the disorder is an empirical question to be addressed subsequently.

In addition to pursuing such unanswered questions, future work should proceed along several other trajectories. First, based on sequence analysis of the 230 genes listed in Tables 26, we have determined that 216 of these genes harbor DNA polymorphisms in putative exonic splicing enhancers, 151 harbor polymorphisms in putative exonic splicing silencers, 36 harbor polymorphisms in canonical splice sites, and 1 gene harbors a polymorphism in a predicted novel splice site at an intron/exon boundary. These polymorphisms are prime candidates for genotyping and association analysis with the disorders under study as well as the expression levels of the alternatively spliced transcripts that these polymorphisms produce. Second, previously completed transcriptomic studies of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder may warrant re-examination in light of the patterns of differential alternate splicing we observed. Failure to replicate the specific (i.e., gene-level) results of transcriptomic studies of these disorders is not uncommon. Frequently cited causes of such discrepancies include tech- nical and methodological variables, or the potential that networks of genes (rather than specific transcripts) are more likely to generalize across subjects and studies [50]. These are indeed potentially valid explanations for the phenomenon; however, it is also possible that variable patterns of expression of splice variants (or differing prevalences of influential polymorphisms [74]) across samples have given the appearance of incomparable full-length gene expression, particularly when coupled with the 3′ bias inherent in previous generations of expression microarrays. Third, further control of potentially influential covariates (e.g., diet and exercise, dosage and duration of medication usage, length of illness, etc.) should be attempted; however, this will require much larger sample sizes so that the effects of these many factors (and their interactions) can be simultaneously modeled. Lastly, our results should be verified using more sensitive mRNA quantification methods, and verified independently in either spliceome-wide or targeted replication efforts, after which some of the identified candidate exons and alternatively spliced genes may be validated as useful biomarkers for these conditions.

An important lesson learned from prior efforts to develop biomarkers for psychiatric disorders is that no single tissue, molecule, or marker is likely to yield sufficient power for improving existing behavioral classification schemes; rather, integration of the best markers from multiple domains (e.g., DNA, brain mRNA, blood mRNA, protein, etc.) may lead to the most reliable profiles [22], which then can be used to begin appropriate, group-tailored interventions. Beyond this working model, it also may be necessary to introduce an iterative component to deal with the abundant phenotypic heterogeneity of the major psychoses, which potentially may map onto heterogeneity in etiologic and biomarker profiles. Thus, as broadly influential etiologic factors and their associated biomarkers are identified, segments of the larger schizophrenia and bipolar disorder phenotypes may be “carved out”, some of which [e.g., PSYCH(+)] are influenced by that factor and some of which [e.g., PSYCH(−)] are not. The subsequent detection of both environmental and biological influences on-and biomarkers of-such subgroups will be facilitated by their relative homogeneity; however, additional phenotypic “cleavage points” should be anticipated until groups with a highly similar etiologic and biomarker profile are obtained.

Supplementary Material

Supplementary Table 1
Supplementary Table 2
Supplementary Table 3
Supplementary Table 4
Supplementary Table 5

Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the UCSD Center for AIDS Research Genomics Core, and National Institutes of Health grants P30MH062512 (Igor Grant), R01MH079881, R25MH074508, R25MH081482, and R41MH079728 (I.P.E.), R01AG018386, R01AG022381, and R01AG022982 (W.S.K.), R01DA012846, R01DA018662, R01MH065562, R01MH 071912, and R21MH075027 (M.T.T.), P50MH081755 (Eric Courchesne/S.J.G.), and a NARSAD Young Investigator Award (S.J.G.).

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ANCOVA

Analysis of covariance

ANOVA

Analysis of variance

BPD

Bipolar disorder

CDS

Coding sequence

CNT

Control

DIGS

Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies

FDR

False-discovery rate

FWER

Family-wise error rate

ID

Identity

mRNA

Messenger ribonucleic acid

PBMC

Peripheral blood mononuclear cell

PRICE

Psychopharmacology Research Initiatives Center for Excellence

PSYCH

Psychosis

QRT-PCR

Quantitative reverse-transcription PCR

RIN

RNA Integrity Number

RMA

Robust multi-array average

SCZ

Schizophrenia

UCSD

University of California, San Diego

WT

Whole transcript

Footnotes

DUALITY/CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

None declared/applicable.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Supplementary material is available on the publishers Web site along with the published article.

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Associated Data

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Supplementary Materials

Supplementary Table 1
Supplementary Table 2
Supplementary Table 3
Supplementary Table 4
Supplementary Table 5

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