Hello everyone,
I have 32 candidate genes associated with schizophrenia, along with a set of genes where CAG repeat expansions are known to cause neurodegenerative diseases. I want to investigate whether these schizophrenia-related genes also contain CAG repeats and if the repeat length is linked to schizophrenia susceptibility.
To achieve this, should I focus on gene expression analysis, or is there another recommended approach? Additionally, where can I find relevant datasets for this analysis?
I would greatly appreciate any guidance on this. Feel free to connect with me—I’m also sharing my LinkedIn profile and would be truly grateful for any insights!
Thank you!
Hi,
Thank you for your question. Here is a response from one of our scientific technical expert team members.
We likely do not have the type of data that you would like for your gene expression analysis.
Thank you,
Susan
For determining which genes have CAG repeats, someone has likely already done this, so try starting with a Google search. If not, the reference human genome probably could address this, at least to get a baseline level of potential places where CAG locations exist in or near relevant (or any) genes.
For determining whether CAG reads relate to schizophrenia, whole genome sequencing data from donors with schizophrenia (not necessarily in brain) will be needed. This might also be possible by starting with raw RNA-seq data sets and looking at the specific sequences found in coding of genes of interest; however, normal 50bp and 100bp reads are likely too short to be useful and long-read sequencing (potentially targeted at schizophrenia genes) to have the best chance of success.