Tissue Restricted Splice Junctions Originate Not Only from Tissue-Specific Gene Loci, but Gene Loci with a Broad Pattern of Expression

Abstract

Cellular mechanisms that achieve protein diversity in eukaryotes are multifaceted, including transcriptional components such as RNA splicing. Through alternative splicing, a single protein- coding gene can generate multiple mRNA transcripts and protein isoforms, some of which are tissue-specific. We have conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses of the Bodymap 2.0 messenger RNA-sequencing data from 16 human tissue samples and identified 209,363 splice junctions. Of these, 22,231 (10.6%) were not previously annotated and 21,650 (10.3%) were expressed in a tissue-restricted pattern. Tissue-restricted alternative splicing was found to be widespread, with approximately 65% of expressed multi-exon genes containing at least one tissue-specific splice junction. Interestingly, we observed many tissue-specific splice junctions not only in genes expressed in one or a few tissues, but also from gene loci with a broad pattern of expression.