Differential expression analysis of Far2 knock-out and wild-type Mus musculus kidney RNA-seq data.

We identified the gene Far2, encoding the fatty acyl-coA reductase 2, to be associated with mesangial matrix expansion (MME) in the mouse (PMID: 24009241). In order to verify this association we obtained the C57BL/6N-Far2tm2a(KOMP)Wtsi/2J (JR#018805) strain from The Jackson Laboratory''s KOMP2 program and compared this strain to it''s control strain (C57BL/6N) for several renal characteristics. At 6 months of age the knockout mice have a significantly better kidney function (measured as glomerular filtration rate) but the MME is at a comparable level. However, as MME increases in the control strain at 12 months of age, MME does not increase in the knockout until 18 months of age. In order to explore changes at the gene expression level, we compared RNA sequence reads from 6-month old kidneys. Our analysis showed a decrease of RNA expression for several tubular damage markers (NGAL, KIM-1) and an increase in several genes in the fatty acid metabolism pathway. Overall design: This study consists of 3 biological replicates of the C57BL/6N-Far2tm2a(KOMP)Wtsi/2J and 3 biological replicates of C57BL/6N, which are compared to each other