Spliced Leader Trapping Reveals Widespread Alternative Splicing Patterns in the Highly Dynamic Transcriptome of Trypanosoma brucei

PLoS Pathogens

Loic Baerlocher¹  Laurent Farinelli¹  Magne Osteras¹  Daniel Nilsson²  Kapila Gunasekera²  Jan Mani²  Isabel Roditi²  Torsten Ochsenreiter² 

[1] Fasteris, Genome Analyzer Service FASTERIS SA, Geneva, Switzerland;Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

关键词: Alternative splicing;    Trypanosoma;    Trypanosoma brucei gambiense;    Gene expression;    Parasitic life cycles;    Untranslated regions;    Messenger RNA;    DNA transcription;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1001037

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Trans-splicing of leader sequences onto the 5′ends of mRNAs is a widespread phenomenon in protozoa, nematodes and some chordates. Using parallel sequencing we have developed a method to simultaneously map 5′splice sites and analyze the corresponding gene expression profile, that we term spliced leader trapping (SLT). The method can be applied to any organism with a sequenced genome and trans-splicing of a conserved leader sequence. We analyzed the expression profiles and splicing patterns of bloodstream and insect forms of the parasite Trypanosoma brucei. We detected the 5′ splice sites of 85% of the annotated protein-coding genes and, contrary to previous reports, found up to 40% of transcripts to be differentially expressed. Furthermore, we discovered more than 2500 alternative splicing events, many of which appear to be stage-regulated. Based on our findings we hypothesize that alternatively spliced transcripts present a new means of regulating gene expression and could potentially contribute to protein diversity in the parasite. The entire dataset can be accessed online at TriTrypDB or through: http://splicer.unibe.ch/.

【 授权许可】

CC BY