Figure 8.

Expression of proteasome complexes in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) lymphoblasts is upregulated at the protein level but downregulated at the transcript level. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean. RNA sequencing transcriptomics experiment: ME/CFS n = 23, control n = 17. Each cell line was sampled once. Mass spectrometry proteomics experiment: ME/CFS n = 34, control n = 31. Each cell line was sampled once, or twice for a subset of healthy controls arbitrarily selected to act an internal control between experiments in the mass spectrometry proteomics work. (A) A total of 46 proteasome complex subunits were detected within the whole-cell proteomes of ME/CFS and control lymphoblasts. Fold change refers to the mean abundance of a given protein in the CFS group divided by the mean abundance in the control group. The fraction of detected proteins that were upregulated (binomial test with H_o set to 0.5) and the average extent of the upregulation (single-sample t test with H_o m = 1) were statistically significant. (B) A total of 48 RNA transcripts encoding proteasome complex subunits were detected within the whole-cell transcriptomes of ME/CFS and control lymphoblasts. Fold change refers to the mean abundance of a given transcript in the CFS group divided by the mean abundance in the control group. The fraction of detected transcripts that were downregulated (binomial test with H_o set to 0.5) and the average extent of the downregulation (single-sample t test with H_o m = 1) were statistically significant.