Gene enrichment profiles reveal T-cell development, differentiation, and lineage-specific transcription factors including ZBTB25 as a novel NF-AT repressor.

The identification of transcriptional regulatory networks, which control tissue-specific development and function, is of central importance to the understanding of lymphocyte biology. To decipher transcriptional networks in T-cell development and differentiation we developed a browsable expression atlas and applied a novel quantitative method to define gene sets most specific to each of the represented cell subsets and tissues. Using this system, body atlas size datasets can be used to examine gene enrichment profiles from a cell/tissue perspective rather than gene perspective, thereby identifying highly enriched genes within a cell type, which are often key to cellular differentiation and function. A systems analysis of transcriptional regulators within T cells during different phases of development and differentiation resulted in the identification of known key regulators and uncharacterized coexpressed regulators. ZBTB25, a BTB-POZ family transcription factor, was identified as a highly T cell-enriched transcription factor. We provide evidence that ZBTB25 functions as a negative regulator of nuclear factor of activated T cells (NF-AT) activation, such that RNA interference mediated knockdown resulted in enhanced activation of target genes. Together, these findings suggest a novel mechanism for NF-AT mediated gene expression and the compendium of expression data provides a quantitative platform to drive exploration of gene expression across a wide range of cell/tissue types.