1
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Brooks TG, Lahens NF, Mrčela A, Sarantopoulou D, Nayak S, Naik A, Sengupta S, Choi PS, Grant GR. BEERS2: RNA-Seq simulation through high fidelity in silico modeling. Brief Bioinform 2024; 25:bbae164. [PMID: 38605641 PMCID: PMC11009461 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbae164] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2023] [Revised: 01/26/2024] [Accepted: 03/26/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Simulation of RNA-seq reads is critical in the assessment, comparison, benchmarking and development of bioinformatics tools. Yet the field of RNA-seq simulators has progressed little in the last decade. To address this need we have developed BEERS2, which combines a flexible and highly configurable design with detailed simulation of the entire library preparation and sequencing pipeline. BEERS2 takes input transcripts (typically fully length messenger RNA transcripts with polyA tails) from either customizable input or from CAMPAREE simulated RNA samples. It produces realistic reads of these transcripts as FASTQ, SAM or BAM formats with the SAM or BAM formats containing the true alignment to the reference genome. It also produces true transcript-level quantification values. BEERS2 combines a flexible and highly configurable design with detailed simulation of the entire library preparation and sequencing pipeline and is designed to include the effects of polyA selection and RiboZero for ribosomal depletion, hexamer priming sequence biases, GC-content biases in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification, barcode read errors and errors during PCR amplification. These characteristics combine to make BEERS2 the most complete simulation of RNA-seq to date. Finally, we demonstrate the use of BEERS2 by measuring the effect of several settings on the popular Salmon pseudoalignment algorithm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas G Brooks
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | - Nicholas F Lahens
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | - Antonijo Mrčela
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | - Dimitra Sarantopoulou
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Current address: National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Soumyashant Nayak
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Current address: Statistics and Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
| | - Amruta Naik
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Shaon Sengupta
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Peter S Choi
- Division of Cancer Pathobiology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Gregory R Grant
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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2
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Li G, Mahajan S, Ma S, Jeffery ED, Zhang X, Bhattacharjee A, Venkatasubramanian M, Weirauch MT, Miraldi ER, Grimes HL, Sheynkman GM, Tilburgs T, Salomonis N. Splicing neoantigen discovery with SNAF reveals shared targets for cancer immunotherapy. Sci Transl Med 2024; 16:eade2886. [PMID: 38232136 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.ade2886] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2024]
Abstract
Immunotherapy has emerged as a crucial strategy to combat cancer by "reprogramming" a patient's own immune system. Although immunotherapy is typically reserved for patients with a high mutational burden, neoantigens produced from posttranscriptional regulation may provide an untapped reservoir of common immunogenic targets for new targeted therapies. To comprehensively define tumor-specific and likely immunogenic neoantigens from patient RNA-Seq, we developed Splicing Neo Antigen Finder (SNAF), an easy-to-use and open-source computational workflow to predict splicing-derived immunogenic MHC-bound peptides (T cell antigen) and unannotated transmembrane proteins with altered extracellular epitopes (B cell antigen). This workflow uses a highly accurate deep learning strategy for immunogenicity prediction (DeepImmuno) in conjunction with new algorithms to rank the tumor specificity of neoantigens (BayesTS) and to predict regulators of mis-splicing (RNA-SPRINT). T cell antigens from SNAF were frequently evidenced as HLA-presented peptides from mass spectrometry (MS) and predict response to immunotherapy in melanoma. Splicing neoantigen burden was attributed to coordinated splicing factor dysregulation. Shared splicing neoantigens were found in up to 90% of patients with melanoma, correlated to overall survival in multiple cancer cohorts, induced T cell reactivity, and were characterized by distinct cells of origin and amino acid preferences. In addition to T cell neoantigens, our B cell focused pipeline (SNAF-B) identified a new class of tumor-specific extracellular neoepitopes, which we termed ExNeoEpitopes. ExNeoEpitope full-length mRNA predictions were tumor specific and were validated using long-read isoform sequencing and in vitro transmembrane localization assays. Therefore, our systematic identification of splicing neoantigens revealed potential shared targets for therapy in heterogeneous cancers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guangyuan Li
- Division of Biomedical Informatics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA
| | - Shweta Mahajan
- Division of Immunobiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Siyuan Ma
- Division of Immunobiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Erin D Jeffery
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
| | - Xuan Zhang
- Division of Immunobiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Anukana Bhattacharjee
- Division of Biomedical Informatics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Meenakshi Venkatasubramanian
- Division of Biomedical Informatics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Department of Computer Science, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Matthew T Weirauch
- Division of Biomedical Informatics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Center for Autoimmune Genomics and Etiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Division of Human Genetics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Emily R Miraldi
- Division of Biomedical Informatics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Division of Immunobiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - H Leighton Grimes
- Division of Immunobiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Gloria M Sheynkman
- Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
| | - Tamara Tilburgs
- Division of Immunobiology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
| | - Nathan Salomonis
- Division of Biomedical Informatics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
- Department of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45267, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA
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3
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Quesnel-Vallières M, Jewell S, Lynch KW, Thomas-Tikhonenko A, Barash Y. MAJIQlopedia: an encyclopedia of RNA splicing variations in human tissues and cancer. Nucleic Acids Res 2024; 52:D213-D221. [PMID: 37953365 PMCID: PMC10767883 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkad1043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2023] [Revised: 10/11/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Quantification of RNA splicing variations based on RNA-Sequencing can reveal tissue- and disease-specific splicing patterns. To study such splicing variations, we introduce MAJIQlopedia, an encyclopedia of splicing variations that encompasses 86 human tissues and 41 cancer datasets. MAJIQlopedia reports annotated and unannotated splicing events for a total of 486 175 alternative splice junctions in normal tissues and 338 317 alternative splice junctions in cancer. This database, available at https://majiq.biociphers.org/majiqlopedia/, includes a user-friendly interface that provides graphical representations of junction usage quantification for each junction across all tissue or cancer types. To demonstrate case usage of MAJIQlopedia, we review splicing variations in genes WT1, MAPT and BIN1, which all have known tissue or cancer-specific splicing variations. We also use MAJIQlopedia to highlight novel splicing variations in FDX1 and MEGF9 in normal tissues, and we uncover a novel exon inclusion event in RPS6KA6 that only occurs in two cancer types. Users can download the database, request the addition of data to the webtool, or install a MAJIQlopedia server to integrate proprietary data. MAJIQlopedia can serve as a reference database for researchers seeking to understand what splicing variations exist in genes of interest, and those looking to understand tissue- or cancer-specific splice isoform usage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathieu Quesnel-Vallières
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - San Jewell
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Kristen W Lynch
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Andrei Thomas-Tikhonenko
- Division of Cancer Pathobiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Division of Oncology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Yoseph Barash
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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4
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Ziff OJ, Harley J, Wang Y, Neeves J, Tyzack G, Ibrahim F, Skehel M, Chakrabarti AM, Kelly G, Patani R. Nucleocytoplasmic mRNA redistribution accompanies RNA binding protein mislocalization in ALS motor neurons and is restored by VCP ATPase inhibition. Neuron 2023; 111:3011-3027.e7. [PMID: 37480846 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2023.06.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 06/22/2023] [Indexed: 07/24/2023]
Abstract
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is characterized by nucleocytoplasmic mislocalization of the RNA-binding protein (RBP) TDP-43. However, emerging evidence suggests more widespread mRNA and protein mislocalization. Here, we employed nucleocytoplasmic fractionation, RNA sequencing, and mass spectrometry to investigate the localization of mRNA and protein in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived motor neurons (iPSMNs) from ALS patients with TARDBP and VCP mutations. ALS mutant iPSMNs exhibited extensive nucleocytoplasmic mRNA redistribution, RBP mislocalization, and splicing alterations. Mislocalized proteins exhibited a greater affinity for redistributed transcripts, suggesting a link between RBP mislocalization and mRNA redistribution. Notably, treatment with ML240, a VCP ATPase inhibitor, partially restored mRNA and protein localization in ALS mutant iPSMNs. ML240 induced changes in the VCP interactome and lysosomal localization and reduced oxidative stress and DNA damage. These findings emphasize the link between RBP mislocalization and mRNA redistribution in ALS motor neurons and highlight the therapeutic potential of VCP inhibition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver J Ziff
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT London, UK; Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, UK; National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London NHS Foundation Trust, WC1N 3BG London, UK.
| | - Jasmine Harley
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT London, UK; Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, UK; Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, A(∗)STAR Research Entities, Singapore 138673, Singapore
| | - Yiran Wang
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT London, UK; Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, UK
| | - Jacob Neeves
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT London, UK; Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, UK
| | - Giulia Tyzack
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT London, UK; Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, UK
| | - Fairouz Ibrahim
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT London, UK
| | - Mark Skehel
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT London, UK
| | | | - Gavin Kelly
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT London, UK; Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, UK
| | - Rickie Patani
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, NW1 1AT London, UK; Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, WC1N 3BG London, UK; National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London NHS Foundation Trust, WC1N 3BG London, UK.
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5
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Wang R, Helbig I, Edmondson AC, Lin L, Xing Y. Splicing defects in rare diseases: transcriptomics and machine learning strategies towards genetic diagnosis. Brief Bioinform 2023; 24:bbad284. [PMID: 37580177 PMCID: PMC10516351 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2023] [Revised: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 07/20/2023] [Indexed: 08/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Genomic variants affecting pre-messenger RNA splicing and its regulation are known to underlie many rare genetic diseases. However, common workflows for genetic diagnosis and clinical variant interpretation frequently overlook splice-altering variants. To better serve patient populations and advance biomedical knowledge, it has become increasingly important to develop and refine approaches for detecting and interpreting pathogenic splicing variants. In this review, we will summarize a few recent developments and challenges in using RNA sequencing technologies for rare disease investigation. Moreover, we will discuss how recent computational splicing prediction tools have emerged as complementary approaches for revealing disease-causing variants underlying splicing defects. We speculate that continuous improvements to sequencing technologies and predictive modeling will not only expand our understanding of splicing regulation but also bring us closer to filling the diagnostic gap for rare disease patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Wang
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Genomics and Computational Biology Graduate Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Ingo Helbig
- The Epilepsy NeuroGenetics Initiative, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Division of Neurology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Andrew C Edmondson
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, Division of Human Genetics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Lan Lin
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Yi Xing
- Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
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6
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Kshirsagar A, Doroshev SM, Gorelik A, Olender T, Sapir T, Tsuboi D, Rosenhek-Goldian I, Malitsky S, Itkin M, Argoetti A, Mandel-Gutfreund Y, Cohen SR, Hanna JH, Ulitsky I, Kaibuchi K, Reiner O. LIS1 RNA-binding orchestrates the mechanosensitive properties of embryonic stem cells in AGO2-dependent and independent ways. Nat Commun 2023; 14:3293. [PMID: 37280197 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38797-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2022] [Accepted: 05/15/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Lissencephaly-1 (LIS1) is associated with neurodevelopmental diseases and is known to regulate the molecular motor cytoplasmic dynein activity. Here we show that LIS1 is essential for the viability of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs), and it governs the physical properties of these cells. LIS1 dosage substantially affects gene expression, and we uncovered an unexpected interaction of LIS1 with RNA and RNA-binding proteins, most prominently the Argonaute complex. We demonstrate that LIS1 overexpression partially rescued the extracellular matrix (ECM) expression and mechanosensitive genes conferring stiffness to Argonaute null mESCs. Collectively, our data transforms the current perspective on the roles of LIS1 in post-transcriptional regulation underlying development and mechanosensitive processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aditya Kshirsagar
- Departments of Molecular Genetics and Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Svetlana Maslov Doroshev
- Departments of Molecular Genetics and Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Anna Gorelik
- Departments of Molecular Genetics and Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Tsviya Olender
- Departments of Molecular Genetics and Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Tamar Sapir
- Departments of Molecular Genetics and Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Daisuke Tsuboi
- International Center for Brain Science, Fujita Health University, Toyoake, Japan
| | - Irit Rosenhek-Goldian
- Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Sergey Malitsky
- Department of Life Sciences Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Maxim Itkin
- Department of Life Sciences Core Facilities, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Amir Argoetti
- Faculty of Biology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | | | - Sidney R Cohen
- Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Jacob H Hanna
- Departments of Molecular Genetics and Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Igor Ulitsky
- Department of Immunology and Regenerative Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Kozo Kaibuchi
- International Center for Brain Science, Fujita Health University, Toyoake, Japan
| | - Orly Reiner
- Departments of Molecular Genetics and Molecular Neuroscience, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
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7
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Brooks TG, Lahens NF, Mrčela A, Sarantopoulou D, Nayak S, Naik A, Sengupta S, Choi PS, Grant GR. BEERS2: RNA-Seq simulation through high fidelity in silico modeling. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.04.21.537847. [PMID: 37162982 PMCID: PMC10168222 DOI: 10.1101/2023.04.21.537847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Simulation of RNA-seq reads is critical in the assessment, comparison, benchmarking, and development of bioinformatics tools. Yet the field of RNA-seq simulators has progressed little in the last decade. To address this need we have developed BEERS2, which combines a flexible and highly configurable design with detailed simulation of the entire library preparation and sequencing pipeline. BEERS2 takes input transcripts (typically fully-length mRNA transcripts with polyA tails) from either customizable input or from CAMPAREE simulated RNA samples. It produces realistic reads of these transcripts as FASTQ, SAM, or BAM formats with the SAM or BAM formats containing the true alignment to the reference genome. It also produces true transcript-level quantification values. BEERS2 combines a flexible and highly configurable design with detailed simulation of the entire library preparation and sequencing pipeline and is designed to include the effects of polyA selection and RiboZero for ribosomal depletion, hexamer priming sequence biases, GC-content biases in PCR amplification, barcode read errors, and errors during PCR amplification. These characteristics combine to make BEERS2 the most complete simulation of RNA-seq to date. Finally, we demonstrate the use of BEERS2 by measuring the effect of several settings on the popular Salmon pseudoalignment algorithm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas G Brooks
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | - Nicholas F Lahens
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | - Antonijo Mrčela
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
| | - Dimitra Sarantopoulou
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Current address: National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
| | - Soumyashant Nayak
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Current address: Statistics and Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
| | - Amruta Naik
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Shaon Sengupta
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Peter S Choi
- Division of Cancer Pathobiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Gregory R Grant
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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8
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Ziff OJ, Neeves J, Mitchell J, Tyzack G, Martinez-Ruiz C, Luisier R, Chakrabarti AM, McGranahan N, Litchfield K, Boulton SJ, Al-Chalabi A, Kelly G, Humphrey J, Patani R. Integrated transcriptome landscape of ALS identifies genome instability linked to TDP-43 pathology. Nat Commun 2023; 14:2176. [PMID: 37080969 PMCID: PMC10119258 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37630-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2023] [Indexed: 04/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) causes motor neuron degeneration, with 97% of cases exhibiting TDP-43 proteinopathy. Elucidating pathomechanisms has been hampered by disease heterogeneity and difficulties accessing motor neurons. Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived motor neurons (iPSMNs) offer a solution; however, studies have typically been limited to underpowered cohorts. Here, we present a comprehensive compendium of 429 iPSMNs from 15 datasets, and 271 post-mortem spinal cord samples. Using reproducible bioinformatic workflows, we identify robust upregulation of p53 signalling in ALS in both iPSMNs and post-mortem spinal cord. p53 activation is greatest with C9orf72 repeat expansions but is weakest with SOD1 and FUS mutations. TDP-43 depletion potentiates p53 activation in both post-mortem neuronal nuclei and cell culture, thereby functionally linking p53 activation with TDP-43 depletion. ALS iPSMNs and post-mortem tissue display enrichment of splicing alterations, somatic mutations, and gene fusions, possibly contributing to the DNA damage response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver J Ziff
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London, NW1 1AT, UK.
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, WC1N 3BG, UK.
- National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London NHS Foundation Trust, London, WC1N 3BG, UK.
| | - Jacob Neeves
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London, NW1 1AT, UK
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Jamie Mitchell
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London, NW1 1AT, UK
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Giulia Tyzack
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London, NW1 1AT, UK
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Carlos Martinez-Ruiz
- Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, University College London Cancer Institute, London, UK
| | - Raphaelle Luisier
- Genomics and Health Informatics Group, Idiap Research Institute, Martigny, Switzerland
| | | | - Nicholas McGranahan
- Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, University College London Cancer Institute, London, UK
| | - Kevin Litchfield
- Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence, University College London Cancer Institute, London, UK
| | - Simon J Boulton
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London, NW1 1AT, UK
| | - Ammar Al-Chalabi
- Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Gavin Kelly
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London, NW1 1AT, UK
| | - Jack Humphrey
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience & Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Rickie Patani
- The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London, NW1 1AT, UK.
- Department of Neuromuscular Diseases, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, WC1N 3BG, UK.
- National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London NHS Foundation Trust, London, WC1N 3BG, UK.
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9
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Vaquero-Garcia J, Aicher JK, Jewell S, Gazzara MR, Radens CM, Jha A, Norton SS, Lahens NF, Grant GR, Barash Y. RNA splicing analysis using heterogeneous and large RNA-seq datasets. Nat Commun 2023; 14:1230. [PMID: 36869033 PMCID: PMC9984406 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36585-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2022] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 03/05/2023] Open
Abstract
The ubiquity of RNA-seq has led to many methods that use RNA-seq data to analyze variations in RNA splicing. However, available methods are not well suited for handling heterogeneous and large datasets. Such datasets scale to thousands of samples across dozens of experimental conditions, exhibit increased variability compared to biological replicates, and involve thousands of unannotated splice variants resulting in increased transcriptome complexity. We describe here a suite of algorithms and tools implemented in the MAJIQ v2 package to address challenges in detection, quantification, and visualization of splicing variations from such datasets. Using both large scale synthetic data and GTEx v8 as benchmark datasets, we assess the advantages of MAJIQ v2 compared to existing methods. We then apply MAJIQ v2 package to analyze differential splicing across 2,335 samples from 13 brain subregions, demonstrating its ability to offer insights into brain subregion-specific splicing regulation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Joseph K Aicher
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.,Division of Human Genetics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - San Jewell
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Matthew R Gazzara
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Caleb M Radens
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Anupama Jha
- Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Scott S Norton
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Nicholas F Lahens
- Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Gregory R Grant
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.,Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Yoseph Barash
- Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. .,Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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10
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Wang D, Quesnel-Vallieres M, Jewell S, Elzubeir M, Lynch K, Thomas-Tikhonenko A, Barash Y. A Bayesian model for unsupervised detection of RNA splicing based subtypes in cancers. Nat Commun 2023; 14:63. [PMID: 36599821 PMCID: PMC9813260 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35369-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2022] [Accepted: 11/29/2022] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Identification of cancer sub-types is a pivotal step for developing personalized treatment. Specifically, sub-typing based on changes in RNA splicing has been motivated by several recent studies. We thus develop CHESSBOARD, an unsupervised algorithm tailored for RNA splicing data that captures "tiles" in the data, defined by a subset of unique splicing changes in a subset of patients. CHESSBOARD allows for a flexible number of tiles, accounts for uncertainty of splicing quantification, and is able to model missing values as additional signals. We first apply CHESSBOARD to synthetic data to assess its domain specific modeling advantages, followed by analysis of several leukemia datasets. We show detected tiles are reproducible in independent studies, investigate their possible regulatory drivers and probe their relation to known AML mutations. Finally, we demonstrate the potential clinical utility of CHESSBOARD by supplementing mutation based diagnostic assays with discovered splicing profiles to improve drug response correlation.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Wang
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Graduate Group in Genomics and Computational Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Mathieu Quesnel-Vallieres
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - San Jewell
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Moein Elzubeir
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Kristen Lynch
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Andrei Thomas-Tikhonenko
- Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Division of Cancer Pathobiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Yoseph Barash
- Department of Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
- Department of Computer and Information Sciences, School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
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11
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Gallego-Paez LM, Mauer J. DJExpress: An Integrated Application for Differential Splicing Analysis and Visualization. FRONTIERS IN BIOINFORMATICS 2022; 2:786898. [PMID: 36304260 PMCID: PMC9580925 DOI: 10.3389/fbinf.2022.786898] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Accepted: 02/08/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
RNA-seq analysis of alternative pre-mRNA splicing has facilitated an unprecedented understanding of transcriptome complexity in health and disease. However, despite the availability of countless bioinformatic pipelines for transcriptome-wide splicing analysis, the use of these tools is often limited to expert bioinformaticians. The need for high computational power, combined with computational outputs that are complicated to visualize and interpret present obstacles to the broader research community. Here we introduce DJExpress, an R package for differential expression analysis of transcriptomic features and expression-trait associations. To determine gene-level differential junction usage as well as associations between junction expression and molecular/clinical features, DJExpress uses raw splice junction counts as input data. Importantly, DJExpress runs on an average laptop computer and provides a set of interactive and intuitive visualization formats. In contrast to most existing pipelines, DJExpress can handle both annotated and de novo identified splice junctions, thereby allowing the quantification of novel splice events. Moreover, DJExpress offers a web-compatible graphical interface allowing the analysis of user-provided data as well as the visualization of splice events within our custom database of differential junction expression in cancer (DJEC DB). DJEC DB includes not only healthy and tumor tissue junction expression data from TCGA and GTEx repositories but also cancer cell line data from the DepMap project. The integration of DepMap functional genomics data sets allows association of junction expression with molecular features such as gene dependencies and drug response profiles. This facilitates identification of cancer cell models for specific splicing alterations that can then be used for functional characterization in the lab. Thus, DJExpress represents a powerful and user-friendly tool for exploration of alternative splicing alterations in RNA-seq data, including multi-level data integration of alternative splicing signatures in healthy tissue, tumors and cancer cell lines.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jan Mauer
- *Correspondence: Lina Marcela Gallego-Paez, ; Jan Mauer,
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