Tandem RNA chimeras contribute to transcriptome diversity in human population and are associated with intronic genetic variants

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2014

Authors

Greger, L (Author) Other; Su, J (Author) Other; Rung, J (Author) Other; Ferreira, PG (Author) Other; Lappalainen, T (Author) Other; Dermitzakis, ET (Author) Other; Brazma, A (Author) Other; Geuvadis consortium, (Author) Other

Journal

Title: PLoS ONE

Vol. 9 No. 2

ISSN: 1932-6203

Publisher: Public Library of Science

Indexing

Scopus - 24 Citations

Scientific classification

CORDIS: Natural sciences > Biological sciences > Biology > Computational biology

FOS: Natural sciences > Biological sciences ; Natural sciences > Computer and information sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00Q-55E

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104567

Abstract (EN): Chimeric RNAs originating from two or more different genes are known to exist not only in cancer, but also in normal tissues, where they can play a role in human evolution. However, the exact mechanism of their formation is unknown. Here, we use RNA sequencing data from 462 healthy individuals representing 5 human populations to systematically identify and in depth characterize 81 RNA tandem chimeric transcripts, 13 of which are novel. We observe that 6 out of these 81 chimeras have been regarded as cancer-specific. Moreover, we show that a prevalence of long introns at the fusion breakpoint is associated with the chimeric transcripts formation. We also find that tandem RNA chimeras have lower abundances as compared to their partner genes. Finally, by combining our results with genomic data from the same individuals we uncover intronic genetic variants associated with the chimeric RNA formation. Taken together our findings provide an important insight into the chimeric transcripts formation and open new avenues of research into the role of intronic genetic variants in post-transcriptional processing events. © 2014 Greger et al.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific