RNA-seq of monocyte derived macrophages and dendritic cells in a Peruvian Tuberculosis cohort

In this study, we sought to analyze the effects of genetic variants on gene expression levels in relation to the history of infectious disease and cell type. To do this, we focused on a Peruvian human cohort that had been previously genotyped who either progressed to active tuberculosis (TB) disease (cases) or did not progress to TB (controls). We isolated monocytes from PBMC samples of these individuals and differentiated in vitro to dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages (MPs). We performed RNA-seq for each sample using a modified Smart-seq protocol for low-input RNA-sequencing. We measured the impact of genetic variants on gene expression by identifying expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL). We identified cell-type-specific eQTL genes as well as five genes that showed an interaction between eQTL variants and TB progression status in dendritic cells. We found that the top eQTL interaction with disease history was associated with a gene involved in tyrosine catabolism.