title: Genome-wide analysis of alternative splicing in Caenorhabditis elegans.
abstract: Alternative splicing (AS) plays a crucial role in the diversification of gene function and regulation. Consequently, the systematic identification and characterization of temporally regulated splice variants is of critical importance to understanding animal development. We have used high-throughput RNA sequencing and microarray profiling to analyze AS in C. elegans across various stages of development. This analysis identified thousands of novel splicing events, including hundreds of developmentally regulated AS events. To make these data easily accessible and informative, we constructed the C. elegans Splice Browser, a web resource in which researchers can mine AS events of interest and retrieve information about their relative levels and regulation across development. The data presented in this study, along with the Splice Browser, provide the most comprehensive set of annotated splice variants in C. elegans to date, and are therefore expected to facilitate focused, high resolution in vivo functional assays of AS function.
authors.affiliation: Banting and Best Department of Medical Research, Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Ontario M5S 3E1, Canada.
authors.forename: Arun K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Ramani
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Calarco
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Sepand
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mavandadi
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Andrew C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: Leo J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Quaid
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Benjamin J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Blencowe
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhen
authors.forename: Andrew G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Fraser
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D012984:Software