ArticlePLoS genetics2023
Characterizing the landscape of gene expression variance in humans.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed.
- Inter-individual gene expression variability implies stable regulation of brain-biased genes across organs in three ray-finned fishes.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Long-term temporal stability of circulating proteins in older adults.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Transcriptional remodeling of human skeletal muscle following sleep restriction in postmenopausal women.Physiological genomics · 2026Article
- Beyond the mean: genetic control of gene expression fidelity and dispersion.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Disordered but Different: Functional and Evolutionary Divergence of Transcription Factor Intrinsically Disordered Regions.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Wanted: A population genetic theory of biological noise regulation.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Host Prior Exposure Augments Gene Expression Heterogeneity of Both Host and Pathogen During In Vivo Infection.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Environmental perturbation increases gene expression variability and unmasks genetic regulation for transcriptional robustness.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Transcriptomic signatures and immune microenvironment of acute rejection after heart transplantation: an integrated bioinformatics analysis.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2026Article
- A New Differential Gene Expression Based Simulated Annealing for Solving Gene Selection Problem: A Case Study on Eosinophilic Esophagitis and Few Other Gastro-intestinal Diseases.Biochemical genetics · 2025Article
- Interaction Between Enhancers and Promoters in Chicken Genome.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Feedforward miR-181d degradation modulates population variance of methyl-guanine methyl transferase and temozolomide resistance.Cell reports · 2025Article
- The Genomic Kaleidoscope: On the Hidden Dimensions of Within-Species Genomic Diversity.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Review
- Long-term temporal stability of circulating proteins in older adults.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Inherited Genetic Variation in Parkinson's Disease: Convergence on Impaired Autophagosome-Lysosome Fusion Through the Altered Expression of mRNA Isoforms.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
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- Classification of Paediatric Celiac Disease Using RNA Sequencing and Real-Time PCR of Duodenal Biomarkers.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2025Article
- The regulatory architecture of gene expression variation in Caenorhabditis elegans revealed by multi-strain allele-specific analysis.Genetics · 2025Article
- Integrative Genomics Refines Tissues, Candidate Genes and Putative Regulatory Links Involved in the Humic Adaptation of Keystone Freshwater Fish.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Gene expression variance has been linked to organismal function and fitness but remains a commonly neglected aspect of molecular research. As a result, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the patterns of transcriptional variance across genes, and how this variance is linked to context-specific gene regulation and gene function. Here, we use 57 large publicly available RNA-seq data sets to investigate the landscape of gene expression variance. These studies cover a wide range of tissues and allowed us to assess if there are consistently more or less variable genes across tissues and data sets and what mechanisms drive these patterns. We show that gene expression variance is broadly similar across tissues and studies, indicating that the pattern of transcriptional variance is consistent. We use this similarity to create both global and within-tissue rankings of variation, which we use to show that function, sequence variation, and gene regulatory signatures contribute to gene expression variance. Low-variance genes are associated with fundamental cell processes and have lower levels of genetic polymorphisms, have higher gene-gene connectivity, and tend to be associated with chromatin states associated with transcription. In contrast, high-variance genes are enriched for genes involved in immune response, environmentally responsive genes, immediate early genes, and are associated with higher levels of polymorphisms. These results show that the pattern of transcriptional variance is not noise. Instead, it is a consistent gene trait that seems to be functionally constrained in human populations. Furthermore, this commonly neglected aspect of molecular phenotypic variation harbors important information to understand complex traits and disease.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.