Transcriptomics of whole brain tissue in heterogeneous stock rats

Transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) integrate genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and gene expression datasets to prioritize causal genes at GWAS loci. The NIDA center for genetic studies of drug abuse in outbred rats (P50DA037844) has collected genetic data from thousands of HS rats to perform GWAS on numerous behavioral traits that are relevant to substance use disorders. However, GWAS loci remain difficult to interpret. In this scenario, TWAS offer an orthogonal approach to prioritize causal variants. TWAS rely on a reference gene panel in which both gene expression in relevant tissues and genetic variation has been measured from the same individuals to learn per-gene predictive models of expression variation. This dataset will be used to generate transcriptomic phenotypes from brain tissues of naïve heterogeneous stock rats for use in molecular QTL mapping, TWAS reference panels, expression prediction, and other transcriptomic applications. Overall design: RNA-seq profiling of whole brain tissue from a cohort of naive outbred rats for use in statistical genetic analyses