Transcriptomic analysis of DJ-1 knockout rat brains using RNA-Seq

Mutations in the DJ-1 gene cause rare forms of autosomal recessive Parkinson''s disease in humans. Recently, DJ-1 knockout rats have been generated and they have been reported to have subtle motor defects and neurodegeneration. We hypothesized that measuring the differences in mRNA expression in the brains of wildtype and DJ-1 knockout rats would provide insight into the mechanisms underlying these phenotypes. Using RNA-Seq, we were able to measure differential expression of over 2,000 genes in the DJ-1 knockout rat brains. Overall design: 8 wildtype male rats, 6 DJ-1 knockout male rats