Figure 3. A common host transcriptome response signature and its biological characteristics.

(A) Illustration of expression patterns of differentially expressed genes (THP1r2Mtb) between 4 h to 18 h after Mtb infection. Those genes induced are most prominent, thus representing a common host transcriptome response signature spectrum. Genes whose promoter regions (2,000 bp upstream to 200 bp downstream of transcription start site) harbouring the putative TFBSs obtained from Expander [53] were indicated by bars in blue. (B, C, and D) Significant functional and regulatory features in the THP1r2Mtb-induced signature, including GO for functional enrichments, KEGG for pathway enrichments and positional weighted matrix (PWM) for regulatory enrichments. Also listed underneath in Figure 3C are genes involved in the cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, wherein those independently validated by qRT-PCR were highlighted in bold (see also Figure S5).