Fig. 4

Effects of biological factors on hervRNA expression. a Sex differentially expressed hervRNAs. The barplot shows the differentially expressed hervRNAs (FDR < 0.05) ordered by the expression differences between males and females. The boxplot shows HERV_00007673 gene expression in males (left) and females (right) across 7 body sites. Except for BRNCTXB, the difference between males and females at each body site was significant (P < 0.01, Wilcoxon rank-sum test). The center line indicates the median, the limits are the IQR, the whiskers represent 1.5× the IQR, and individual black dots represent outliers. b HERV_00003665 gene expression in African Americans (left) and European Americans (right). Except for BRNCTXB, the difference between males and females at each body site was significant (P < 0.01, Wilcoxon rank-sum test). The center line indicates the median, the limits are the IQR, the whiskers represent 1.5× the IQR, and individual black dots represent outliers. c The number of age-associated increasing (red) and decreasing (blue) hervRNAs in each body site. The body sites in red indicate enrichment of hervRNA increasing with age while body sites in blue indicate enrichment of hervRNA decreasing with age. d HERV_00001450 gene expression in the brain subregions as a function of age. The shaded area around the regression line represents the 95% confidence interval