Regulatory Hotspots in the Malaria Parasite Genome Dictate Transcriptional Variation
Figure 1
Genes with eQTLs as a Proportion of all Transcripts
(A) The range of relative transcript levels between the highest and lowest expressing progeny clones (relative to the HB3 reference) observed for each transcript represented on the microarray at binned intervals (x-axis). Red circles represent all of the probes present on the array; blue squares represent the number of those that mapped as significant eQTLs (p ≤ 0.05). eQTLs were detected across the spectrum of relative transcript ranges in the progeny.
(B) Relative transcript abundance at binned intervals (x-axis), plotted against probe counts for all probes represented on the microarray (red circles) and for all of those probes mapping to eQTLs at a genome-wide significance of p ≤ 0.05 (blue squares). The inset shows the strong linear relationship between the two groups of probes, demonstrating the consistent ability to identify eQTLs across the range of transcript abundances.
(C) Percentage of probes that generated eQTLs at each defined relative range of expression levels in the progeny. An increase in proportion of probes with eQTLs was observed as the range of transcript's relative expression levels increased. More than 10% of the probes that exhibited a 2-fold or less range in relative expression levels among the progeny were mapped to at least one eQTL, highlighting the sensitivity of this method.