Are transcription factors some kind of eQTLs?

Question

[utsafar]

Cause of working on Allele-Specific expression, working I am trying to know more about expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). based on definition, eQTLs are loci that control the expression level of other genes by Cis or Trans effects. Transcription factors are also proteins (product of genes) that control expression level of other genes. So the question is that, are transcription factors some kind of eQTLs? (or eQTLs are some kind of TFs?).

[andrew.j.skelton73]

Consider asking this on the biology stack exchange site

[utsafar]

Sure, but I think bioinformaticians are also acquaintance with this subject

[WouterDeCoster]

That's not the point. The scope of this forum is bioinformatics. It's not because bioinformaticians know about Shakespeare literature that it's suddenly a good idea to ask questions about that here, too.

[grant.hovhannisyan]

Agree with @andrew.j.skelton73. This is a question about biological concept, rather bioinformatics approach (the main focus of the forum).

Answer 1

[Jean-Karim Heriche]

Purely from a definition point of view, eQTLs and transcription factors can't be the same things. As QTLs are regions of the genome and transcription factors are proteins, they can't be the same (i.e. DNA vs protein). However, an eQTL could be located in a transcription factor gene but a transcription factor gene is not necessarily a eQTL. eQTLs are sequence variants that account for differences in expression levels between individuals of a population. If the genomic sequence of a transcription factor gene is identical between individuals, then it wouldn't explain any difference in expression level.

[WouterDeCoster]

I would like to add to this that a SNP in a transcription factor binding site might be an eQTL.

[theobroma22]

Upvote! I second this answer. Nice explaination!!