Project description:Changes in alternative splicing are associated with several pathological conditions, including cancer. Microarrays strategies, which allow for the characterization of thousands of alternative splice forms in a single test, can be applied to identify differential alternative splicing events. In this study, a novel splice array platform was developed, including the design of a high-density oligonucleotide array, a labeling procedure, and an algorithm to identify splice events. The array consists of exon probes and thermodynamically balanced junction probes. Suboptimal probes are tagged and considered in the final analysis. An unbiased labeling protocol was developed using random primers. The algorithm used to distinguish changes in expression from changes in splicing was calibrated using internal non-spliced control sequences. The performance of this splice array was first validated with artificial constructs for CDC6, VEGF, and PCBP4 isoforms. The platform was then applied to the analysis of differential splice forms for 8000 genes in lung cancer samples compared to matched normal lung tissue. The expression of lung cancer-associated splice isoforms was validated by RT-PCR. Overexpression of splice isoforms was identified for genes encoding CEACAM1, FHL-1, MLPH, and SUSD2. None of these splicing isoforms had been previously associated with lung cancer. In conclusion, this highly accurate methodology enables the detection of alternative splicing events in complex biological samples, providing a powerful tool to identify novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cancer and other pathologies. 20 normal/tumor paired specimens. Tumor samples are from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whereas normals are from adjacent normal lung tissue.
Project description:The identifcation of alternatively spliced transcript variants specific to particular biological processes in tumours should increase our understanding of cancer. Hypoxia is an important factor in cancer biology and associated splice variants may present new markers to help with planning treatment. A method was developed to analyse alternative splicing in exon array data, using probeset multiplicity to identify genes with changes in expression across their loci, and a combination of the splicing index and a new metric based on the variation of reliability weighted fold changes to detect changes in the splicing patterns. The approach was validated on a cancer/normal sample dataset in which alternative splicing events had been confirmed using RT-PCR. We then analysed ten head and neck squamous cell carcinomas using exon arrays and identified differentially expressed splice variants in five samples with high versus five with low levels of hypoxia-associated genes (Winter et al, 2007; Cancer Res 67:3441-9). The analysis identified a splice variant of LAMA3 (Laminin 3), LAMA3-A, known to be involved in tumour cell invasion and progression. The full-length transcript of the gene (LAMA3-B) did not appear to be hypoxia-associated. The results were confirmed using qualitative real time PCR. In a series of 59 prospectively-collected head and neck tumours (Winter et al, 2007; Cancer Res 67:3441-9), expression of LAMA3-A had prognostic significance whereas LAMA3-B did not. This work illustrates the potential for alternatively spliced transcripts to act as biomarkers of disease prognosis with improved specificity for particular tissues or conditions over assays which do not discriminate between splice variants.
Project description:Changes in alternative splicing are associated with several pathological conditions, including cancer. Microarrays strategies, which allow for the characterization of thousands of alternative splice forms in a single test, can be applied to identify differential alternative splicing events. In this study, a novel splice array platform was developed, including the design of a high-density oligonucleotide array, a labeling procedure, and an algorithm to identify splice events. The array consists of exon probes and thermodynamically balanced junction probes. Suboptimal probes are tagged and considered in the final analysis. An unbiased labeling protocol was developed using random primers. The algorithm used to distinguish changes in expression from changes in splicing was calibrated using internal non-spliced control sequences. The performance of this splice array was first validated with artificial constructs for CDC6, VEGF, and PCBP4 isoforms. The platform was then applied to the analysis of differential splice forms for 8000 genes in lung cancer samples compared to matched normal lung tissue. The expression of lung cancer-associated splice isoforms was validated by RT-PCR. Overexpression of splice isoforms was identified for genes encoding CEACAM1, FHL-1, MLPH, and SUSD2. None of these splicing isoforms had been previously associated with lung cancer. In conclusion, this highly accurate methodology enables the detection of alternative splicing events in complex biological samples, providing a powerful tool to identify novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for cancer and other pathologies.
Project description:Purpose: The goal of this study was to use deep sequencing to identify all splice variants of Calcium/calmodulin-dependent kinase II (CaMKII) expressed in the human hippocampus. Methods: Transcripts of CaMKII-encoding genes (CAMK2A, CAMK2B, CAMK2G, and CAMK2D) were sub-amplified by PCR from total RNA extracted from human hippocampal tissue samples from 3 donors. Illumina sequencing libraries were constructed by PCR from these initial pools of amplicons and sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq instrument. Sequencing reads passing quality controls were clustered on the basis of sequence identity or near-identity. Consensus sequences of clusters were mapped with known exons of CaMKII genes to identify the splice variant represented by each cluster. Donor 1 replicate 2, Donor 2, and Donor 3 libraries from genes CAMK2B, CAMK2G, and CAMK2D were first sequenced on a MiSeq Nano flow cell, then re-pooled for read balancing and sequenced again of a full-size MiSeq flow cell. For each library, reads from Nano and full-size flow cells were combined for subsequent analysis. Results: We perfomed the first comprehensive survey of CaMKII transcripts expressed in individual tissue samples (human hippocampus). We detected a total of 79 splice variants of the four human CaMKIIs: CaMKIIα (3), CaMKIIβ (30), CaMKIIγ (24), and CaMKIIδ (22), across tissue samples from 3 donors. This represents the vast majority of possible in-frame CaMKII splice variants (Sloutsky and Stratton, European Journal of Neuroscience, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.14761).
Project description:The Shieldin complex, consisting of SHLD1, SHLD2, SHLD3 and REV7, shields double strand DNA breaks (DSBs) from nucleolytic resection. The end-protecting activity of Shieldin promotes productive non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) in G1 but can threaten genome integrity during S-phase by blocking homologous recombination (HR). Curiously, the penultimate Shieldin component, SHLD1 is one of the least abundant mammalian proteins. Here, we report that the transcription factors THAP1, YY1 and HCF1 bind directly to the SHLD1 promoter, where they cooperatively maintain the low basal expression of SHLD1. Functionally, this transcriptional network ensures that SHLD1 protein levels are kept in check to enable a proper balance between end protection and end resection during physiological DSB repair. In the context of BRCA1 deficiency, loss of THAP1 dependent SHLD1 expression confers cross resistance to PARP inhibitor and cisplatin, and shorter progression free survival in ovarian cancer patients. In contrast, loss of THAP1 in BRCA2 deficient cells increases genome instability and correlates with improved responses to chemotherapy. Pathogenic THAP1 mutations are causatively linked to adult-onset torsion dystonia type 6 (DYT6) movement disorder, but the critical disease targets are unknown. We further demonstrate that murine models of Thap1-associated dystonia show reduced Shld1 expression concomitant with elevated levels of unresolved DNA damage in the brain. In summary, our study provides the first example of a transcriptional network that directly controls DSB repair choice and reveals a previously unsuspected link between DNA damage and dystonia.
Project description:Aberrant splice variants are involved in the initiation and/or progression of glial brain tumors. We therefore set out to identify splice variants that are differentially expressed between histological subgroups of gliomas. Splice variants were identified using a novel platform that profiles the expression of virtually all known and predicted exons present in the human genome. Exon-level expression profiling was performed on 26 glioblastomas, 22 oligodendrogliomas and 6 control brain samples. Our results demonstrate that Human Exon arrays can identify subgroups of gliomas based on their histological appearance and genetic aberrations. We next used our expression data to identify differentially expressed splice variants. In two independent approaches, we identified 49 and up to 459 exons that are differentially spliced between glioblastomas and oligodendrogliomas a subset of which (47% and 33%) were confirmed by RT-PCR. In addition, exon-level expression profiling also identified >700 novel exons. Expression of ~67% of these candidate novel exons was confirmed by RT-PCR. Our results indicate that exon-level expression profiling can be used to molecularly classify brain tumor subgroups, can identify differentially regulated splice variants and can identify novel exons. The splice variants identified by exon-level expression profiling may help to detect the genetic changes that cause or maintain gliomas and may serve as novel treatment targets. Keywords: cell type comparison 6 adult non diseased brain, 26 glioblastomas, 21 oligodendrogliomas
Project description:The degree to which alternative RNA splicing influences the function and structure of voltage gated calcium channel (VGCC) splice variants is poorly understood. Here we used long-read RNA-sequencing to catalog rat Cacna1e (Cav2.3) splice variants, and computationally prioritize which are likely to impact channel function. We sequenced Cacna1e transcripts from rat thalamus using Oxford Nanopore sequencing yielding the structure of 2,110 Cacna1e splice variants. Of these, up to 154 had the potential encode for a functional channel based on predicted amino acid sequences. Our analysis revealed a total of 31 cassette splicing events (in various combinations) potentially affecting channel function, with three cassette exons appreciably expressed and conserved.