Abstract
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is characterised by progressive motor neuron
degeneration but there is marked genetic and clinical heterogeneity 1. Identifying
common mechanisms of ALS amongst this diversity has been challenging,
however, a systematic framework examining motor neurons across the ALS
spectrum may reveal unifying insights. Here, we present the most comprehensive
compendium of ALS human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived motor neurons
(iPSNs) from 429 donors across 15 datasets including Answer ALS and
NeuroLINCS, spanning 10 ALS mutations and sporadic ALS. Using gold-standard
reproducible bioinformatic workflows, we identify that ALS iPSNs show common
activation of the DNA damage response and p53 signalling, which was replicated
in the NYGC ALS postmortem cohort of 203 spinal cord samples. The strongest
p53 activation was observed in C9orf72 repeat expansions but was also
independently increased in TARDBP , FUS and sporadic subgroups. ALS iPSNs
showed extensive splicing alterations and enrichment of SNVs, indels and gene
fusions, which may contribute to their damage-induced mutation signature. Our
Results
integrate the global landscape of motor neuron alterations in ALS, revealing
that genome instability is a common hallmark of ALS motor neurons and provides
a resource to identify future ALS drug targets.
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Introduction
Over 30 gene mutations have been established to cause ALS, the most common
being in C9orf72, SOD1, TARDBP and FUS. However, in ~90% of cases, no
pathogenic mutation is identified, which we refer to as sporadic (sALS) 1.
Heritability estimates of ALS are ~50% and genome-wide association studies have
identified over 50 common variants associated with ALS susceptibility (e.g.
UNC13A, TBK1, ATXN2, NEK1, SMN1 )2. These genes are involved in a wide
range of processes spanning neuronal functions, RNA processing, DNA damage
response, mitochondrial function and proteostasis 3. This genomic complexity has
made identifying common pathogenic mechanisms across ALS challenging4.
A major hurdle in identifying the causes of ALS has been the inaccessibility to
patient motor neurons. Whilst postmortem ALS tissue has revealed important
insights, it represents the end-stage of the disease with only few surviving motor
neurons5–8. Human-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived motor neurons
(iPSNs) offer a potential solution. They can recapitulate pathological features of
ALS, enabling exploration of the functional consequences of genetic variants on
motor neurons during the initial phases of the disease 9–11. Since iPSNs can be
generated from any individual irrespective of genetic background, they enable
sALS to be modelled, which is not possible with animal models 12. However, iPSN
cultures are expensive and labour intensive and studies have often been limited to 3
or fewer patients 13–17. Against this background, there has been a recent expansion
of ALS iPSN biobanks with initiatives such as neuroLINCS 18 and Answer ALS 19,
offering a unique opportunity to identify generalisable motor neuron perturbations
across ALS genetic backgrounds. Here, we present a robust analytical framework
to identify unifying molecular aberrations underlying motor neuron dysfunction in
ALS.
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Results
iPSC-derived motor neuron identities
Our search strategy of databases identified 16 ALS iPSN datasets that had
undergone RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq; Fig. 1, Extended Data Fig. 1). iPSN
differentiation protocols for each dataset were extracted and found to follow
generally similar procedures between datasets, however, there were notable
differences in the duration of cultures, which ranged between 12-42 days in vitro
(mean 31 days; Table S1). All samples underwent extensive quality control and
principal component analysis was used to interrogate the effects of sequencing and
culture batch confounding variables (Table S2). This revealed 2 global clusters of
iPSNs separated by PC1 and PC2, according to poly(A) or total Ribo-Zero RNA
library preparation (Extended Data Fig. 2-3). The principal component gene
loadings confirmed that the separation was driven by histone and small nucleolar
encoding genes, which represent non-polyadenylated genes (Extended Data Fig.
2a).
iPSNs showed high expression of neuronal markers from all datasets with
exception of one HB9 reporter dataset that also exhibited different RNA library
preparations between ALS (Ribo-Zero) and control (polyA) samples and was
excluded from the meta-analysis (Extended Data Fig. 4)20. Although the expression
of post-mitotic dorso-ventral motor neuron domain markers (e.g. CHAT, MNX1
[HB9], LHX3, FOXP1, ALDH1A2, ISL1) varied between datasets, there was high
expression of rostro-caudal markers ( HOX1-8) across all datasets, which is
consistent with hindbrain, cervical and thoracic spinal cord specification (Extended
Data Fig. 5-7). For the meta-analysis, we included 15 datasets comprising 429
iPSNs, of which 323 were from ALS patients and 106 from non-ALS controls.
ALS iPSNs carried pathogenic mutations in 10 different genes, including
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C9orf7218,19,21–24 (n = 60), SOD1 14,15,17–19 (n = 20), FUS16,19,21,25,26 (n = 14) and
TARDBP19,22,27,28 (n = 10), whilst 208 (64.2%) were from patients without an
identifiable ALS mutation, which we term sALS (Table 1).
Fig. 1: Study overview.
Schematic summarising our analytic framework using iPSC-derived motor neurons
(iPSNs) to interrogate perturbations across the spectrum of ALS.
ALS iPSNs activate the DNA damage response
To identify pan-ALS transcriptomic changes we performed a meta-analysis
comparing all 323 ALS versus 106 control iPSNs, accounting for batch effects
between datasets (see Methods). We found 43 differentially expressed genes in
pan-ALS versus control iPSNs, with 20 upregulated and 23 downregulated in ALS
iPSNs (FDR < 0.05, Fig. 2a, Table S3). Amongst differentially expressed genes
most increased in ALS was the endoribonuclease RNase L (RNASEL) which
regulates decay of cytoplasmic RNA and localisation of RNA binding proteins
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(RBPs)29. Using functional enrichment analysis, we found that upregulated genes
in ALS were enriched in the DNA damage response (hypergeometric p = 2.2x10 -5;
SESN1, RRM2B, TNFRSF10B ) and p53 signalling (p = 2.7x10 -5; CDKN1A,
TP53TG3E) whereas downregulated genes were overrepresented by DNA-binding
transcription factor activity (p = 0.003; MYOG, TBX5, POU5F1 [Oct4]) and
ventral spinal cord development (p = 0.004; LMO4, OLIG2, FOXN4 ; Fig. 2b).
Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) identified significant up-regulation of the
p53 signal transduction gene set (GO:0072331, n = 264) in ALS iPSNs
(normalised enrichment score [NES] +1.44, enrichment P = 4.9x10-4; Fig. 2c).
To further understand how signalling pathways are activated in ALS iPSNs, we
performed a Signalling Pathway RespOnsive GENes (PROGENy)30 analysis which
leverages perturbation experiments to more accurately infer pathway activity
changes by weighting genes in each pathway based on their responsiveness.
PROGENy revealed that the most substantial pathway activity increase in ALS
iPSNs was in p53 (NES +13.0, p < 0.002), followed by Mitogen-Activated Protein
Kinase (MAPK; NES +5.6, p < 0.002), whilst the greatest decrease was observed
in WNT (NES -2.5, p = 0.03; Fig. 2d). Examining each gene in the p53 pathway
according to its p53 weighting in PROGENy, revealed that the genes with the
strongest responsiveness in p53 activity in ALS iPSNs included CDKN1A, SESN1,
RRM2B, MDM2, C2orf66, ZNF561 and ZMAT3 (Fig. 2e). We next inferred the
activities of 429 transcription factors (TFs) from their regulon expression within
the DoRothEA database 30. Remarkably, this revealed that TP53 was the TF with
the greatest increase in activity in ALS (NES +7.62, p < 0.002) followed by
ZNF274 and ATF4. The strongest TF decreases in ALS were in PRDM14,
ZNF263, and SIX5 (Fig. 2f; Table S4). Interrogating individual genes constituting
the TP53 TF regulon revealed the greatest increases in ALS iPSNs in TNFRSF10B,
SESN1, RRM2B, CDKN1A, ZMAT3 and MDM2.
Although our statistical design adjusts for dataset batch effects, it is plausible that
changes between ALS and control groups were confounded by imbalances between
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total Ribo-Zero and poly(A) libraries. To address this, we performed a subgroup
analysis in poly(A) datasets (10 datasets; 48 ALS, 43 control iPSNs) and total
Ribo-Zero (5 datasets; 275 ALS, 63 control iPSNs) separately (Extended Data Fig.
8a-b). Comparing ALS versus control iPSNs revealed that in poly(A) datasets there
were 69, and in total Ribo-Zero datasets there were 12 differentially expressed
genes (Extended Data Fig. 8c-d). Overlapping differentially expressed genes
between analyses revealed that RNase L was significantly increased in ALS iPSNs
in both library preparation analyses independently. Furthermore, we confirmed
significant increases in p53 pathway activity in ALS in both library preparation
analyses (polyA datasets: NES +11.4, p < 0.002; Ribo-Zero datasets: NES +7.3, p
< 0.002; Extended Data Fig. 10e-f). Likewise, TP53 TF activity was significantly
increased in ALS iPSNs in both library preparations (polyA datasets: NES +6.54, p
< 0.002; Ribo-Zero datasets: NES +5.12, p < 0.002; Extended Data Fig. 8g-h). This
indicates that library preparation was not responsible for the DNA damage
response gene expression changes observed in ALS iPSNs.
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Fig. 2: Differential gene expression in ALS versus control iPSNs.
a, Volcano plot of differential gene expression in ALS versus control iPSNs. b,
Functionally enriched terms in up-regulated (red) and down-regulated (blue)
differentially expressed genes. c, Gene set enrichment analyses (GSEA) for signal
transduction by p53 (GO:0072331, n = 264) in ALS versus control. NES,
normalized enrichment score. d, PROGENy signalling pathway activities in ALS
versus control. Pathways increased in ALS are red and pathways decreased are
blue. *** represents P < 0.0001 and * P < 0.05. e , Expression changes of p53
signalling pathway genes in ALS versus control according to their PROGENy
weights. Genes increasing p53 activity in ALS are red whilst genes decreasing p53
activity in ALS are blue. f, Activities of 429 transcription factors in DoRothEA
inferred from their regulon expression changes in ALS versus control. The
normalised enrichment score in ALS versus control (x-axis) is plotted according to
the enrichment p-value (y-axis).
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p53 activation is common across ALS genetic backgrounds
To identify how ALS iPSN changes compare between ALS genetic backgrounds,
we next examined the effect of each genetic subgroup on gene expression
separately. 2 sALS datasets (208 sALS vs 56 controls), 7 C9orf72 datasets (60
C9orf72, 83 controls), 5 SOD1 datasets (20 SOD1 vs 63 controls), 5 FUS datasets
(14 FUS vs 55 controls) and 3 TARDBP datasets (10 TARDBP vs 48 controls).
Controls from each dataset were utilised only if the dataset had samples from the
relevant genetic background. Although we found large numbers of differentially
expressed genes (adjusted P < 0.05) in TARDBP mutants (3,547), the other
subgroups showed more modest changes: FUS (239), C9orf72 (161), and SOD1
(7). Despite sALS being the most well-powered, with 208 iPSNs, there were only 4
differentially expressed genes (Fig. 3a-e). Correlation of transcriptome-wide gene
expression changes between ALS genetic backgrounds revealed weak associations,
with the strongest correlation between SOD1 and sALS lines (Pearson R = +0.38)
and the weakest between SOD1 and TARDBP (R = -0.14; Fig. 3f, Extended Data
Fig. 9a). To identify whether different ALS genetic backgrounds exhibit
differential expression within the same genes, we overlapped genes significantly
changed in expression (Table S5). Although no genes were significantly changed
in expression across all ALS genetic backgrounds, Uroplakin UPK3BL1 and
nuclear pore complex interacting protein NPIPA8 were changed in the C9orf72,
TARDBP and FUS subgroups (Extended Data Fig. 9b) . Functional enrichment
analysis of differentially expressed genes in each genetic subgroup revealed that
C9orf72 mutants upregulated genes involved with p53 and the DNA damage
response whilst downregulating cytoskeleton and microtubule genes. FUS mutants
showed upregulation of genes involved with transcription and DNA-binding and
downregulation of synaptic signalling genes. Conversely, TARDBP mutants
upregulated neuronal and synaptic genes and downregulated genes involved in the
cell cycle and RNA splicing (Extended Data Fig. 9c-e). There were no functional
terms enriched amongst SOD1 or sALS differentially expressed genes.
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Examining PROGENy pathway activities in each genetic subgroup independently
revealed that apart from SOD1 (NES +0.33, p = 0.16), the p53 pathway activity
was significantly increased in each of C9orf72 (NES + 10.9, p < 0.002), TARDBP
(NES +8.6, p < 0.002), sALS (NES +4.2, p < 0.002) and FUS (NES +3.2, p =
0.018; Fig. 3g). Examining the other signalling pathways revealed increases across
most genetic backgrounds in hypoxia, VEGF and MAPK and decreases in WNT
and PI3K (Extended Data Fig. 10a). Examining TF regulon activity in each genetic
Background
separately revealed significantly increased TP53 activity in C9orf72
(NES +9.3, p < 0.002), FUS (NES +4.0, p = 0.004) and TARDBP (NES +2.5, p =
0.01) but decreased activity in SOD1 (NES -3.0, p < 0.002) whilst sALS (NES -
0.31, p = 0.25) was non-significantly changed (Fig. 3h). Observing the other TF
activity changes between genetic backgrounds revealed 5 TFs that were
significantly changed in the same direction across 4 of 5 genetic backgrounds, of
which ZNF274 was increased whilst GATA3, MAZ, TAL1 and TEAD4 were
decreased in activity in the ALS subgroups (Extended Data Fig. 10b). Taken
together, despite transcriptome-wide heterogeneity between genetic backgrounds,
these data suggest that p53 signalling activation is common across the ALS
spectrum in iPSNs.
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Fig. 3: Gene expression changes in each ALS genetic background.
a-e, Volcano plots comparing ALS iPSNs to controls in each ALS genetic
background. Genes coloured red are significantly increased in the ALS subgroup
and genes coloured blue are decreased in the ALS subgroup. f, Heatmap showing
the Pearson’s correlation coefficient for transcriptome-wide changes between each
genetic background. g , PROGENy p53 signalling pathway activity amongst each
of the genetic backgrounds independently. h, Dorothea TP53 transcription factor
regulon activity in each genetic background. **** represents P < 0.0001, *** P <
0.001, ** P < 0.01, * P < 0.05.
ALS postmortem tissue shows p53 activation
To identify whether iPSN ALS gene expression signatures are also found in
postmortem tissue, we compared our findings with postmortem spinal cord RNA-
seq from the NYGC ALS cohort, consisting of tissue from 153 ALS patients and
80 controls 5,31. We found 14,529 differentially expressed genes in postmortem
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ALS versus control spinal cord samples, with 6,417 upregulated and 8,112
downregulated in ALS (FDR < 0.05; Extended Data Fig. 11a). CHIT1, GPNMB
and LYZ were the most strongly upregulated genes in ALS spinal cord, consistent
with a recent report 5. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that upregulated
genes were enriched in the stress response, programmed cell death and the DNA
damage response, whilst downregulated genes were enriched in neuronal functions
(Extended Data Fig. 11b). As with iPSNs, signalling pathway and TF regulon
analysis confirmed that ALS postmortem spinal cord was significantly upregulated
in both p53 signalling (NES +4.7, p < 0.002) and TP53 activity (NES +4.01, p =
0.05; Extended Data Fig. 11c-d). Other signalling pathways also significantly
increased in ALS were TNF α , Androgen, NF κ B and hypoxia whereas EGFR and
VEGF pathways were significantly decreased in activity.
Correlating transcriptome-wide ALS gene expression changes between iPSNs with
postmortem spinal cord revealed a weak positive correlation (Pearson R = +0.13;
Extended Data Fig. 11e). Of the 43 differentially expressed genes changed in ALS
iPSNs, 16 (37.2%) were also changed in ALS postmortem spinal cord, with 7 co-
upregulated and 9 co-downregulated in both ALS iPSNs and postmortem
(hypergeometric test p = 0.0002; Table S6). Amongst the co-upregulated genes
were the DNA damage response and p53 pathway genes CDKN1A, TNFRSF10B,
SESN1 and RRM2B as well as the endoribonuclease RNase L (RNASEL) and
oxidative stress responder ISCU. These results not only confirm p53-dependent
DNA damage response upregulation in ALS but the overlapping genes between
iPSNs and postmortem offer insight into motor neuron-specific changes across
ALS that start early and persist into the later stages of the disease.
Examining differential expression in each postmortem spinal cord genetic
subgroup revealed increases in both p53 signalling and TP53 activity in each of
sALS (n = 115; p53: NES +5.0, p < 0.002; TP53 NES +4.1, p = 0.03), C9orf72 (n
= 29; NES +4.7, p < 0.002; TP53 NES +4.4, p = 0.16), SOD1 (n = 5; NES +3.4, p
= 0.07; TP53 NES +2.1, p = 0.1) and FUS (n = 2; NES +2.6, p = 0.6; TP53 NES
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+3.1, p = 0.18; Extended Data Fig. 11f-g). Correlating transcriptome-wide ALS
changes in postmortem spinal cord with iPSNs for each genetic subgroup revealed
weak associations with the strongest between C9orf72 (Pearson R = +0.25)
followed by sALS (R = +0.15), SOD1 (R = +0.07) and FUS (R = +0.002). C9orf72
mutant iPSNs and postmortem spinal cord shared 20 differentially expressed genes
including axon dynein complex genes DNAH17, DNAAF1, and TEKT2, whereas
FUS shared 6 and sALS shared 1 overlapping differentially expressed gene
(Extended Data Fig. 11h).
Splicing alterations in RBPs and neuronal genes
A proposed molecular mechanism of disease in ALS motor neurons is dysregulated
alternative splicing, which may contribute to genomic instability underlying DNA
damage response activation 32,33. To identify alternative splicing changes in ALS
iPSNs, we utilised the splice graph tool MAJIQ34,35, which quantifies local splicing
variations from large heterogeneous RNA-seq datasets and corrects for dataset
batch effects (Fig. 4a) 36. Since total Ribo-Zero RNA libraries predominantly
capture unprocessed nascent pre-mRNAs and poly(A) selected RNA libraries
capture mature poly-adenylated mRNAs, we restricted splicing analyses to iPSNs
that had undergone poly(A) library preparation (10 datasets composed of 48 ALS
and 43 control iPSNs). Comparing ALS versus control iPSNs identified 264 local
splice variation events in 161 unique genes that were significantly different
between ALS and control (TNOM p 0.1; Fig. 4b, Table S7).
Amongst the splicing events most changed in ALS were in genes that are involved
in DNA repair (including POLM, METTL22, HUWE1, HDAC1 , MTA1, PMS1,
ZSWIM7) and RBPs (including YTHDC2, THOC1, PRR3, STAU2, PTBP3, SREK1,
POLDIP3; Fig. 4c). The event in POLDIP3 was the same exon skipping event that
occurs upon TDP-43 depletion (Extended Data Fig. 12a-b) 37, indicating that TDP-
43 nuclear loss of function may contribute to splicing changes in ALS iPSNs.
Functional enrichment analysis of the 161 genes containing differential splicing
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showed enrichment in protein binding, synaptic and neuronal functions (Fig. 4d),
which are central to ALS motor neuron physiology.
The local splice variations identified by MAJIQ are predominantly complex, being
composed of combinations of various 3’ and 5’ splice sites rather than simple
binary events (e.g. exon skipping or intron retention [IR]). Furthermore, splice
events are not restricted to annotated reference transcriptome splice sites and of the
264 differential splicing events, 28 (10.6%) involved de novo splice junctions. Of
these, 7 were found to be de novo (cryptic) exons ( RELCH, HOXC4, RBM26,
SLC35B3, TENM3, TPTEP2-CSNK1E, ZSCAN29) although none of these
overlapped with TDP-43 depletion 37. 50 out of 264 (18.9%) differential splice
events harboured IR within the local splice variation. Breaking down each local
splice variation into its component splice types and categorising these into basic
splicing modules revealed that exon skipping was the most common splicing type
(182, 45.4%) followed by IR (54, 13.5%; Fig 4e). Splicing alterations, particularly
IR, result in cotranscriptional RNA:DNA hybrids (R-loops) that predispose to
genomic instability and DNA double-strand breaks 38,39. We propose that splicing
defects and R-loop formation in ALS iPSNs may contribute to genome instability
and induce the DNA damage response. In support of this, mutations in the
RNA:DNA helicase senataxin ( SETX), which usually resolves R-loops, cause
young-onset ALS 40 and depletion of FUS and TDP-43 both lead to R-loop
associated DNA damage41.
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Fig. 4: Alternative splicing alterations in ALS iPSNs.
a, Schematic of the steps in splicing analysis of ALS and control iPSNs with
MAJIQ35. b, Differential alternative splicing in poly(A) selected ALS versus
control iPSNs. Y-axis is -log 10 of TNOM p-value with events 0.1 coloured red (increased) and < -0.1
blue (decreased). c, Violin plots showing PSI values (y-axis) for each ALS (red)
and control iPSN samples (blue) for the representative splicing events in POLM,
METTL22, LINC00665, YTHDC2, HUWE1 and HDAC1. d, Functionally enriched
terms amongst genes with differential alternative splicing. e , Pie chart showing the
categorisation of differential local splice variants into each of the basic splicing
event types using the MAJIQ modulizer.
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ALS iPSNs are enriched in SNVs, indels and gene fusions
Genome instability triggers the DNA damage response and p53 signalling 42. To
explore the possibility that DNA damage arises in ALS iPSNs we ran the GATK
variant discovery pipeline, which detects single nucleotide variants (SNVs),
insertions and deletions (indels), that are signatures of aberrant repair of DNA
damage. Variant detection is highly sensitive to coverage and sequencing
chemistries and so we restricted variant detection to the Answer ALS dataset (ALS
n = 238, CTRL n = 42 iPSNs). To increase the likelihood that identified variants
were DNA variants we excluded known RNA editing sites. Across all filtered
variant types, we found significantly greater numbers of variants per iPSN in ALS
compared to control (Wald test p < 2x10 -16; Fig. 5a). Examining each variant type
separately, revealed significantly greater numbers per iPSN of SNVs (Wald test p
T base substitutions in ALS iPSNs relative to controls (p A (p = 0.001), C>T (p = 0.001) and C>A (p = 0.004; Fig 5c). By observing
the relative proportions of each type of base substitution, we found ALS iPSNs
showed increases in T>C, T>A and C>A whereas the proportions of C>T, C>G
and T>G were decreased relative to controls (Extended Data Fig 13a). Examining
the number of variants per iPSN in each ALS genetic background revealed
significantly greater numbers of variants only in the sALS subgroup, although the
other mutant subgroups were relatively underpowered when restricted to Answer
ALS (sALS n = 200, C9orf72 n = 21, SOD1 n = 8, TARDBP n = 1, FUS n = 0;
Extended Data Fig. 13b).
Gene fusions are another important class of genome alteration that can arise from
the repair of DNA damage. Fusions involve two genes becoming juxtaposed due to
structural rearrangements, including inversions and translocations (Fig. 5d). To
explore the possibility of whether ALS iPSNs exhibit increased numbers of gene
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fusions we examined for such events using the RNA-seq iPSN datasets. Accurate
gene fusion detection requires paired-end reads and so we restricted the STAR
Fusion analysis to the 11 paired-end datasets (306 ALS, 90 CTRL iPSNs, Table
1)43. Since gene fusion discovery is also sensitive to differences in read coverage,
we adjusted for the total read count per sample as well as dataset batch effects in
the generalised linear model. There were a total of 292 unique gene fusions
observed in ALS iPSNs and 152 unique gene fusions in control iPSNs, with 91
shared in both conditions (Fig. 5e). Amongst the 201 gene fusions identified in
ALS iPSNs but not in controls, were fusions affecting genes implicated in ALS
including VAPB–APCDD1L-DT, ATXN1–ZFYVE27, TUBA1A–NEFM and
OSTF1–APP (Table S9). Furthermore, of the 292 genes fusions identified in ALS
iPSNs, 14 affected genes also exhibited altered splicing, supporting the possibility
of trans-splicing, that post-transcriptionally joins exons from separate pre-
mRNAs44. By comparing the proportion of each unique gene fusion in ALS with
CTRLs iPSNs, we identified 9 gene fusions with a significantly greater burden in
ALS iPSNs (Table S9). Interestingly, these mostly involved long noncoding RNAs
(lncRNAs), for example, the gene fusion with the greatest burden in ALS was a
neighbour fusion between the lncRNA LINC01572 and PMFBP1 (OR 3.3, 95% CI
1.6-Inf, Fisher’s exact test p 0.001).
Examining the frequency of gene fusions per iPSN, revealed significantly greater
numbers of gene fusions in ALS compared to controls (Wald test p = 0.002; Fig.
5f; Table S10). Comparing the frequencies of each type of gene fusion between
ALS with control iPSNs, revealed trends towards increased numbers in ALS iPSNs
for each of gene neighbours (Wald test p = 0.13), overlapping neighbours (p =
0.83), local inversions (p = 0.95), distant intra-chromosomal (p = 0.93), although
this was statistically significant only for inter-chromosomal fusions (p = 0.0002;
Extended Data Fig. 13c). Comparing the number of gene fusions per iPSN in each
ALS genetic group with their respective dataset controls, revealed significantly
greater numbers of gene fusions in C9orf72 repeat expansions (Wald p = 7x10 -5)
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and SOD1 mutant groups (Wald test p = 6.6x10 -5; Extended Data Fig. 13d). Taken
together, these findings reveal enrichment of SNVs, indels and gene fusions in
ALS motor neurons, which we propose is a genomic signature arising from
elevated DNA damage.
Fig. 5: ALS iPSNs exhibit greater numbers of SNVs, indels and gene fusions.
a, Violin plot showing the numbers of variants identified per iPSN in ALS (red)
and CTRL (blue) samples from Answer ALS. b, Violin plots showing the number
of variants according to their annotated type (Single Nucleotide Variant [SNV],
Insertions, Deletions). c, Number of SNVs classified according to their base
substitution type in ALS and CTRL. d, Schematic of a gene fusion. e, Venn
diagram overlapping unique gene fusions in ALS and CTRL iPSNs from paired-
end datasets. f, Violin plot showing the numbers of unique gene fusions per iPSN.
**** represents P < 0.0001, *** P < 0.001, ** P < 0.01, * P < 0.05.
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Discussion
Here we present a comprehensive catalogue of ALS motor neuron transcriptomes,
comprising >400 iPSNs spanning 10 different ALS mutations and sALS.
Systematically integrating this data provides substantially improved statistical
power to detect perturbations in ALS motor neurons. Our major finding is that
ALS motor neurons display augmented DNA damage response and p53 signalling
activation across the spectrum of ALS. ALS motor neurons showed altered splicing
in neuronal genes as well as greater numbers of SNVs, indels and gene fusions
compared to controls, which may contribute to the elevated DNA damage
response. Our findings add to a growing body of evidence for the role of defective
DNA repair and induction of the DNA damage response in ALS motor neurons45.
Despite the large sample size, we found relatively few differentially expressed
genes across the ALS spectrum. This is likely due to heterogeneity between ALS
genetic backgrounds since these displayed weak transcriptome-wide correlations,
thus limiting the detection of common gene expression changes at the pan-ALS
level. Whilst the sALS subgroup was the most well powered, representing two-
thirds of all ALS iPSNs, it showed only 4 differentially expressed genes,
reminiscent of what we found in sALS iPSC-derived astrocytes 46. sALS represents
a genetically heterogeneous group and likely includes patients carrying as yet
unknown pathogenic gene mutations 47. Additionally, environmental risk factors
play an important role in ALS aetiology particularly in patients without a highly
penetrant mutation 48–52. Whilst the iPSC model is an elegant approach to model
sALS, a notable limitation is that it does not reproduce the patients’ environmental
exposures. Nonetheless, iPSNs without a known ALS mutation still showed
significantly elevated p53 activity.
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In summary, we integrated all publicly available transcriptomic data of iPSNs from
ALS donors, to enable a greater understanding of the determinants of motor neuron
dysfunction. Future studies are required to identify whether DNA damage in ALS
motor neurons results from increased spontaneous damage or impaired repair.
Identifying the identity and loci of the DNA lesions that accumulate in ALS motor
neurons driving p53 activation will help in this regard and may expose desperately
needed tangible therapeutic targets in this devastating and currently untreatable
disease.
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Table 1. iPSN datasets included in meta-analysis
Reference
Accession # Mutation ALS n Control n Library type Layout
Sareen et al, 2013 GSE52202 C9orf72 4 4 polyA Single
Kiskinis et al, 2014 GSE54409 SOD1 2 3 polyA Paired
Kapeli et al, 2016 GSE77702 FUS 3 2 polyA Single
Wang et al, 2017 GSE95089 SOD1 2 2 polyA Paired
De Santis et al, 2017 GSE94888 FUS 3 3 Ribo-zero Paired
Bhinge et al, 2017 PRJNA361408 SOD1 2 2 Ribo-zero Single
Luisier et al, 2018 GSE98290 VCP 3 3 polyA Single
Abo-Rady et al,
2020 GSE143743 C9orf72 3 3 polyA Single
Dafinca et al. 2020
GSE139144 C9orf72 4 8
polyA Paired GSE147544 TARDBP 6 4
Catanese et al., 2021 GSE168831
C9orf72 6
6 polyA Paired FUS 6
Smith et al, 2021 PRJEB47567 TARDBP 3 2 polyA Paired
Hawkins et al, 2022 GSE203168 FUS 2 2 Ribo-zero Single
Sommer et al, 2022 GSE201407 C9orf72 6 6 polyA Paired
NeuroLINCS, 2022 phs001231.v2.p1
sporadic 8
14 Ribo-zero Paired
SOD1 6
C9orf72 16
Answer ALS, 2022
AnswerALS data
portal
sporadic 200
42 Ribo-zero Paired
C9orf72 21
SOD1 8
6 other ALS
mutations 9
Total 323 106
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Methods
Eligibility criteria and search strategy
We evaluated all human iPSN datasets that had undergone bulk RNA-sequencing
(RNA-seq) that examined ALS and controls (healthy individuals or isogenic
correction), regardless of the iPSN differentiation protocol or RNA-seq library
strategy. All ALS subtypes were included and the definition of ALS used by each
individual dataset was accepted. In datasets with multiple timepoints through
motor neuron differentiation only the final most terminal differentiated timepoint
was utilised 13. We excluded datasets that had not undergone a motor neuron
differentiation protocol or failed iPSN identity or RNA-seq quality control
measures. We systematically reviewed RNA-seq databases, including Gene
Expression Omnibus (GEO), NCBI sequence read archive (SRA), EBI
arrayExpress, European Nucleotide Archive (ENA), synapse.org and manually
searched reference lists as well as ALS data portals of relevant studies up to June
2022. The search strategy included keywords relating to ALS and motor neurons.
RNA-seq processing, integration and quality control
The iPSN differentiation protocol method (including induction, specification and
terminal differentiation) as well as RNA-seq library strategy (RNA extraction,
library preparation, sequencing instrument and read metrics) for each dataset is
noted in Table S1. Raw RNA-seq reads (fastq files) and accompanying metadata
were downloaded using nfcore/fetchngs v1.5 pipeline 53 and pysradb v1.3 using the
sample SRA accession number. Reads were processed using the nfcore/rnaseq
v3.8.1 pipeline 53. Raw reads underwent adaptor trimming with Trim Galore,
removal of ribosomal RNA with SortMeRNA, alignment to Ensembl GRCh38.99
human reference genome using splice-aware aligner, STAR v2.7.1 and BAM-level
quantification with Salmon. Samples were subjected to extensive RNA-seq quality
control utilising FastQC, RSeQC, Qualimap, dupRadar, Preseq, and SAMtools and
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Results
were collated with MultiQC. Samples that passed the nfcore/rnaseq quality
control status checks were included in the meta-analysis (Table S2). The median
read depth was 115 (range 6 - 164) million reads per sample.
We used principal component analysis (PCA) and unsupervised clustering to
interrogate the batch effects of clinical variables, iPSN protocols and RNA-seq
strategies between samples and datasets. Gene counts were normalised and
transformed using the variance stabilizing transformation function in DESeq2.
Principal components were calculated based on the 500 highest variance genes
using the plotPCA function and individual PC gene loadings were extracted with
the prcomp function. Samples clustered into two groups based on library
preparation (polyA or total Ribo-Zero RNA). We examined the motor neuron
transcriptomic identities of iPSNs by clustering using the ComplexHeatmap
package based on the expression of canonical neuronal and glial cell type markers
as well as dorsoventral 54 and rostrocaudal (HOX) gene markers. The Lee et al.
dataset was excluded due to RNA library batch effects between ALS (Ribo-Zero)
and control (polyA) samples as well as inadequate neuronal marker expression 20.
We excluded three control samples in AnswerALS that whole-genome sequencing
revealed to have pathogenic ALS mutations. Additionally, 4 Answer ALS iPSNs
from non-ALS motor neuron disease patients were excluded. NeuroLINCS consists
of 3 distinct iPSC protocols (iMNs, diMNs and undifferentiated iPSCs; Table S1),
of which only the iMN and diMN batches were included. Gender was confirmed
by examining expression of the X chromosome gene XIST (female) and Y
chromosome genes KDM5D, DDX37, RP54Y1 and EIFAY (male).
Modelling differential gene expression
STAR aligned and Salmon quantified transcript abundance were summarised at the
gene-level using tximport in R v4.1.3. Differential gene expression analysis was
then fitted using DESeq255. The meta-analysis results of ALS iPSNs was generated
by comparing the ALS versus control groups using the Wald test, controlling for
sex differences and dataset variation with the design formula ~gender + dataset +
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condition. This design controls for technical variation due to library preparation
(nested within the dataset variable), which was the main factor driving PCA
structure (Extended Data Fig. 2-3), thereby increasing the sensitivity for
identifying differences due to ALS. We orthogonally estimated technical variation
using the RUVg method that takes empirically defined negative control genes to
estimate low-rank technical variation in the data, specifying 5 RUV factors 56. To
examine the effect of each ALS genetic background on gene expression a similar
approach was used, comparing the ALS versus control samples using the design
formula ~gender + dataset + genetic_group. For these subgroup analyses, control
samples from each dataset were only utilised if the dataset also exhibited the
relevant ALS genetic background.
Results
for each genetic background were correlated by matching the Wald test
statistic for each gene followed by Pearson correlation. In all analyses, genes were
considered differentially expressed at FDR < 0.05. Significantly up- and down-
regulated differentially expressed genes were used as input to functional
enrichment analyses, which was used to identify enriched pathways using
g:Profiler2. g:Profiler2 searches the following data sources: Gene Ontology (GO;
molecular functions, biological processes and cellular components), KEGG,
REAC, WikiPathways, CORUM and Human phenotype ontology. In the functional
enrichment bar charts, the top significant terms were manually curated by
removing redundant terms. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was performed
using FGSEA on GO:0072331 (signal transduction by p53 class mediator) gene
set. The decoupleR package was used to estimate PROGENy signalling pathway
activities and DoRothEA TF regulon activities inferred from gene expression
changes 30.
Postmortem spinal cord ALS RNA-seq samples were derived from samples from
the New York Genome Centre (NYGC) ALS consortium. Samples from non-spinal
cord sites were excluded as well as samples that failed quality control as described
previously5. Processed gene counts are available from Zenodo accession 6385747.
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In cases where multiple spinal cord samples were available from donors only the
cervical cord sample was included. Differential expression results for postmortem
spinal cord ALS were calculated by comparing ALS versus control samples,
accounting in the design for the RNA library preparation method, gender and the
site of spinal cord (cervical, thoracic or lumbar).
Alternative Splicing Analyses
All modes of alternative splicing were analysed using MAJIQ v2.4 34,35 on poly(A)
selected RNA library samples. STAR aligned BAMs were used as input to the
MAJIQ splice graph builder using Ensembl GRCh38.99 transcript annotation.
Batch effects between datasets and gender were corrected for by using
MOCCASIN36. Differential splicing was calculated using the MAJIQ heterogen
function, which is designed for examining splicing across large and heterogeneous
datasets. A threshold of 10% ΔΨ and TNOM p-value < 0.05 was used to call
significant splicing changes between groups. Changes in each specific class of
splicing were examined using the Voila modulize function that breaks down the
complex local splice variants into the classic binary splicing events (e.g. exon
skipping or intron retention). For comparison of ALS iPSN splicing events with
TDP-43 deletion, RNAseq fastq files from iNeurons were downloaded from ENA
PRJEB42763. These were processed using nfcore/rnaseq followed by MAJIQ v2.4
using the MAJIQ deltapsi function, which is more appropriate for this small single
batch homogenous experimental replicate dataset.
Gene variant and fusion detection
Gene variants were detected using the nfcore/rnavar pipeline v1.0.0 53, which is
based on GATK v4.2.6 short variant discovery workflow. Variant discovery is
highly sensitive to coverage and sequencing chemistries and so only the Answer
ALS dataset was used for variant detection thus avoiding confounding batch
effects between multiple datasets. Raw RNA-seq reads were mapped using STAR
in two-pass mode. SplitNCigarReads tool was used to reformat alignments that
span introns for the HaplotypeCaller. BaseRecalibrator and ApplyBQSR were used
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for base quality recalibration. Single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and indels were
called using the HaplotypeCaller and variants were filtered using VariantFiltration
specifying a minimum phred-scaled confidence threshold of 20 and minimum
quality depth of 2.0. and. RNA editing variants from the REDIportal v2.0 were
filtered out using VCFtools –exclude-bed module. Variants were annotated using
snpEff and Ensembl VEP whilst VCFtools vcf-annotate –fill-type module was used
on the filtered output to classify variants into SNVs, insertions or deletions. The
characteristics of variants were assessed using the MutationalPatterns package
v3.6.0, which summarises the number and proportions of each type of base
substitution57. To compare the number of variants per iPSN in ALS versus CTRL
groups, a generalised linear model was fit specifying a poisson distribution
adjusting for differences in read coverage per sample using a spline: variant_count
~ condition + rcs(total_reads, 3).
Gene fusions were identified using the nfcore/rnafusion pipeline v2.0.0 53, utilising
the STAR-Fusion v1.10.143 workflow on paired-end RNA-seq datasets. Raw RNA-
seq reads were aligned using STAR to identify chimeric transcripts, which are
defined as a part of a read aligning to one gene and another part of the same read to
a different gene (split) or when each end of a paired read set aligns to different
genes (spanning). STAR Fusion applies numerous filters to avoid spurious fusion
detection including removing chimeric reads that overlap with sequence similar
regions and removing duplicate paired-end alignments. Fusion events were filtered
using the FusionFilter module default settings for spanning and split reads. Fusion
events with fusion fragments per million (FFPM) < 0.1 were removed. Gene fusion
events are classified using FusionAnnotator module into inter-chromosomal and
intra-chromosomal. Intra-chromasomal are subclassified into local gene orientation
rearrangements, neighbours (100kb apart). To compare the number
of variants or fusions per iPSN in ALS versus CTRL groups, a generalised linear
model was fit specifying a poisson distribution adjusting for differences in read
. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licenseIt is made available under a
is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review)
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coverage per sample using a spline and batch effects between datasets:
fusion_count ~ condition + dataset + rcs(total_reads, 3) . To detect burden
differences of individual gene fusions in ALS compared to CTRL iPSNs, the
Fisher test was used to calculate the Odds Ratio, 95% confidence interval and p-
value. In both variant and fusion analyses, to examine the effect of each ALS
genetic group, controls were only utilised if the dataset also included ALS samples
from the relevant genetic group.
Schematics were created with BioRender.com. All error bars in the boxplots shown
represent 1.5 times the interquartile range.
Data availability
All raw and processed sequencing data generated in this study are available on
public repositories under accession numbers shown in Table 1.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful for discussions and advice from Jesper Svejstrup, James Lee,
James Briscoe, Rory Maizels, Carlos Martinez Ruiz, the MAJIQ team as well as
the nfcore community, particularly Hashil Patel, Phil Ewels, Praveen Raj, Martin
Proks and Annik Renevey. We thank the Francis Crick Institute scientific
platforms, especially members of the high performance compute team Danny Lang
and John Roche. We thank the AnswerALS and NeuroLINCS teams, particularly
Terry Thompson and Barry Landin, for help with access and interpretation.
This work was funded by the Francis Crick Institute, which receives its core
funding from Cancer Research UK (FC010110), the UK Medical Research Council
(FC010110), and the Wellcome Trust (FC010110). O.J.Z. holds a Crick Clinical
. CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licenseIt is made available under a
is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review)
The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted August 18, 2022. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.11.22278516doi: medRxiv preprint
PhD Fellowship supported by the University College London Hospitals
Biomedical Research Centre (BRC689/ED/CB/100130). R.P. holds an MRC
Senior Clinical Fellowship (MR/S006591/1) and a Lister Research Prize
Fellowship.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
Oliver J. Ziff, Jacob Neeves, Jamie Mitchell, Giulia Tyzack, Anob M.
Chakrabarti, Simon J. Boulton, Gavin Kelly, Rickie Patani
Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of
Neurology, University College London, London, UK
Oliver J. Ziff, Jacob Neeves, Jamie Mitchell, Giulia Tyzack, Rickie Patani
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College
London NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Oliver J. Ziff, Rickie Patani
Cancer Genome Evolution Research Group, Cancer Research UK Lung
Cancer Centre of Excellence, University College London Cancer Institute,
London, UK
Carlos Martinez Ruiz, Nicholas McGranahan
Genomics and Health Informatics Group, Idiap Research Institute,
Switzerland
Raphaelle Luisier
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is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. (which was not certified by peer review)
The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted August 18, 2022. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.11.22278516doi: medRxiv preprint
Nash Family Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn
School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
Jack Humphrey
Contributions
Study was conceived and designed by O.J.Z and R.P. Gene expression, splicing
and fusion analyses were performed by O.J.Z with supervisorial input from G.K.,
J.H., A.M.C., R.L., C.M.R., N.M. and R.P. Interpretation of differentiation
protocols was performed by J.N. and interpretation of motor neuron markers was
performed by J.M. Postmortem data were provided by J.H. The manuscript was
written by O.J.Z. and R.P. Interpretation of data and contributions to write-up were
provided by J.N., G.T., J.M., C.M.R., N.M., R.L., A.M.C., S.J.B., G.K., and J.H.
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
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