文摘
BackgroundThe nuclear hormone receptor superfamily acts as a genomic sensor of diverse signals. Their actions are often intertwined with other transcription factors. Nuclear hormone receptors are targets for many therapeutic drugs, and include the vitamin D receptor (VDR). VDR signaling is pleotropic, being implicated in calcaemic function, antibacterial actions, growth control, immunomodulation and anti-cancer actions. Specifically, we hypothesized that the biologically significant relationships between the VDR transcriptome and phenotype-associated biology could be discovered by integrating the known VDR transcription factor binding sites and all published trait- and disease-associated SNPs. By integrating VDR genome-wide binding data (ChIP-seq) with the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) GWAS catalog of SNPs we would see where and which target gene interactions and pathways are impacted by inherited genetic variation in VDR binding sites, indicating which of VDR’s multiple functions are most biologically significant.