Entropy measures quantify global splicing disorders in cancer.

ABSTRACT: Most mammalian genes are able to express several splice variants in a phenomenon known as alternative splicing. Serious alterations of alternative splicing occur in cancer tissues, leading to expression of multiple aberrant splice forms. Most studies of alternative splicing defects have focused on the identification of cancer-specific splice variants as potential therapeutic targets. Here, we examine instead the bulk of non-specific transcript isoforms and analyze their level of disorder using a measure of uncertainty called Shannon's entropy. We compare isoform expression entropy in normal and cancer tissues from the same anatomical site for different classes of transcript variations: alternative splicing, polyadenylation, and transcription initiation. Whereas alternative initiation and p

SUBMITTER: Ritchie W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2268240 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature