Project description:Understanding gene expression diversity across human populations is essential for accurate genome annotation and disease interpretation. However, existing annotations are primarily based on European-derived transcriptomic data, potentially limiting their applicability to other populations. This study aims to assess population-specific transcript diversity and its impact on gene annotation. To achieve this, we performed long-read RNA sequencing on lymphoblastoid cell lines from 43 individuals across eight globally diverse populations. Our workflow included RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis, and sequencing using Oxford Nanopore long-read technology, followed by transcript assembly and comparison with existing gene annotations. We also integrated novel transcripts into reference annotations to evaluate their effect on allele-specific transcript usage detection. This work provides a critical step toward improving transcriptome annotation across diverse populations, ensuring a more comprehensive representation of human genetic variation.
