title: Deep surveying of alternative splicing complexity in the human transcriptome by high-throughput sequencing.
abstract: We carried out the first analysis of alternative splicing complexity in human tissues using mRNA-Seq data. New splice junctions were detected in approximately 20% of multiexon genes, many of which are tissue specific. By combining mRNA-Seq and EST-cDNA sequence data, we estimate that transcripts from approximately 95% of multiexon genes undergo alternative splicing and that there are approximately 100,000 intermediate- to high-abundance alternative splicing events in major human tissues. From a comparison with quantitative alternative splicing microarray profiling data, we also show that mRNA-Seq data provide reliable measurements for exon inclusion levels.
authors.affiliation: Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Ofer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shai
authors.forename: Leo J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Brendan J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.forename: Benjamin J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Blencowe
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D022821:RNA Splice Sites; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D022821:RNA Splice Sites; D012333:RNA, Messenger