Large scale study of protein domain distribution in the context of alternative splicing

Broad misappropriation of developmental splicing profile by cancer in multiple organs

Oncogenesis mimics key aspects of embryonic development. However, the underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate that the splicing events specifically active during human organogenesis, are broadly reactivated in the organ-specific tumor. Such events are associated with key oncogenic processes and predict proliferation rates in cancer cell lines as well as patient survival. Such events preferentially target nitrosylation and transmembrane-region domains, whose coordinated splicing in multiple genes respectively affect intracellular transport and N-linked glycosylation. We infer critical splicing factors potentially regulating embryonic splicing events and show that such factors are potential oncogenic drivers and are upregulated specifically in malignant cells. Multiple complementary analyses point to MYC and FOXM1 as potential transcriptional regulators of critical splicing factors in brain and liver. Our study provides a comprehensive demonstration of a splicing-mediated link between development and cancer, and suggest anti-cancer targets including splicing events, and their upstream splicing and transcriptional regulators.

SAPFIR: A webserver for the identification of alternative protein features

Background

Alternative splicing can increase the diversity of gene functions by generating multiple isoforms with different sequences and functions. However, the extent to which splicing events have functional consequences remains unclear and predicting the impact of splicing events on protein activity is limited to gene-specific analysis.

Results

To accelerate the identification of functionally relevant alternative splicing events we created SAPFIR, a predictor of protein features associated with alternative splicing events. This webserver tool uses InterProScan to predict protein features such as functional domains, motifs and sites in the human and mouse genomes and link them to alternative splicing events. Alternative protein features are displayed as functions of the transcripts and splice sites. SAPFIR could be used to analyze proteins generated from a single gene or a group of genes and can directly identify alternative protein features in large sequence data sets. The accuracy and utility of SAPFIR was validated by its ability to rediscover previously validated alternative protein domains. In addition, our de novo analysis of public datasets using SAPFIR indicated that only a small portion of alternative protein domains was conserved between human and mouse, and that in human, genes involved in nervous system process, regulation of DNA-templated transcription and aging are more likely to produce isoforms missing functional domains due to alternative splicing.

Conclusion

Overall SAPFIR represents a new tool for the rapid identification of functional alternative splicing events and enables the identification of cellular functions affected by a defined splicing program. SAPFIR is freely available at https://bioinfo-scottgroup.med.usherbrooke.ca/sapfir/, a website implemented in Python, with all major browsers supported. The source code is available at https://github.com/DelongZHOU/SAPFIR.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12859-022-04804-w.

Identifying and characterising key alternative splicing events in Drosophila development

BACKGROUND

In complex Metazoans a given gene frequently codes for multiple protein isoforms, through processes such as alternative splicing. Large scale functional annotation of these isoforms is a key challenge for functional genomics. This annotation gap is increasing with the large numbers of multi transcript genes being identified by technologies such as RNASeq. Furthermore attempts to characterise the functions of splicing in an organism are complicated by the difficulty in distinguishing functional isoforms from those produced by splicing errors or transcription noise. Tools to help prioritise candidate isoforms for testing are largely absent.

RESULTS

In this study we implement a Time-course Switch (TS) score for ranking isoforms by their likelihood of producing additional functions based on their developmental expression profiles, as reported by modENCODE. The TS score allows us to better investigate functional roles of different isoforms expressed in multi transcript genes. From this analysis, we find that isoforms with high TS scores have sequence feature changes consistent with more deterministic splicing and functional changes and tend to gain domains or whole exons which could carry additional functions. Furthermore these functions appear to be particularly important for essential regulatory roles, establishing functional isoform switching as key for regulatory processes. Based on the TS score we develop a Transcript Annotations Pipeline for Alternative Splicing (TAPAS) that identifies functional neighbourhoods of potentially interesting isoforms.

CONCLUSIONS

We have identified a subset of protein isoforms which appear to have high functional significance, particularly in regulation. This has been made possible through the development of novel methods that make use of transcript expression profiles. The methods and analyses we present here represent important first steps in the development of tools to address the near complete lack of isoform specific function annotation. In turn the tools allow us to better characterise the regulatory functions of alternative splicing in more detail.

Nodes occupying central positions in human tissue specific PPI networks are enriched with many splice variants

The functional repertoire of genes in the eukaryotic organisms is enhanced by the phenomenon of alternative splicing. Hence, a node in a tissue specific protein-protein interaction (TS PPIN) network can be thought of as an ensemble of various spliced protein products of the corresponding gene expressed in that tissue. Here we demonstrate that the nodes that occupy topologically central positions characterized by high degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector centrality values in TS PPINs of Homo sapiens are associated with high number of splice variants. We also show that the high "centrality" of these genes/nodes could in part be explained by the presence of a large number of promiscuous domains.

High-resolution functional annotation of human transcriptome: predicting isoform functions by a novel multiple instance-based label propagation method

Alternative transcript processing is an important mechanism for generating functional diversity in genes. However, little is known about the precise functions of individual isoforms. In fact, proteins (translated from transcript isoforms), not genes, are the function carriers. By integrating multiple human RNA-seq data sets, we carried out the first systematic prediction of isoform functions, enabling high-resolution functional annotation of human transcriptome. Unlike gene function prediction, isoform function prediction faces a unique challenge: the lack of the training data--all known functional annotations are at the gene level. To address this challenge, we modelled the gene-isoform relationships as multiple instance data and developed a novel label propagation method to predict functions. Our method achieved an average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.67 and assigned functions to 15 572 isoforms. Interestingly, we observed that different functions have different sensitivities to alternative isoform processing, and that the function diversity of isoforms from the same gene is positively correlated with their tissue expression diversity. Finally, we surveyed the literature to validate our predictions for a number of apoptotic genes. Strikingly, for the famous 'TP53' gene, we not only accurately identified the apoptosis regulation function of its five isoforms, but also correctly predicted the precise direction of the regulation.

Molecular cloning, characterization and expression profiling of a ryanodine receptor gene in Asian corn borer, Ostrinia furnacalis (Guenée)

Ryanodine receptor (RyR) Ca(2+) release channel is the target of diamide insecticides, which show selective insecticidal activity against lepidopterous insects. To study the molecular mechanisms underlying the species-specific action of diamide insecticides, we have cloned and characterized the entire cDNA sequence of RyR from Ostrinia furnacalis (named as OfRyR). The OfRyR mRNA has an Open Reading Frame of 15324 bp nucleotides and encodes a 5108 amino acid polypeptide that displays 79-97% identity with other insects RyR proteins and shows the greatest identity with Cnaphalocrocis medinalis RyR (97%). Quantitative real-time PCR showed that the OfRyR was expressed at the lowest level in egg and the highest level in adult. The relative expression level of OfRyR in first, third and fifth-instar larva were 1.28, 1.19 and 1.99 times of that in egg. Moreover, two alternative splicing sites were identified in the OfRyR gene. One pair of mutually exclusive exons (a/b) were present in the central part of the predicted SPRY domain, and an optional exon (c) was located between the third and fourth RyR domains. Diagnostic PCR demonstrated that exons a and b existed in all developmental stages of OfRyR cDNA, but exon c was not detected in the egg cDNA. And the usage frequencies of these exons showed a significant difference between different developmental stages. These results provided the crucial basis for the functional expression of OfRyR and for the discovery of compound with potentially selective insect activtity.

The impact of splicing on protein domain architecture

Many proteins are composed of protein domains, functional units of common descent. Multidomain forms are common in all eukaryotes making up more than half of the proteome and the evolution of novel domain architecture has been accelerated in metazoans. It is also becoming increasingly clear that alternative splicing is prevalent among vertebrates. Given that protein domains are defined as structurally, functionally and evolutionarily distinct units, one may speculate that some alternative splicing events may lead to clean excisions of protein domains, thus generating a number of different domain architectures from one gene template. However, recent findings indicate that smaller alternative splicing events, in particular in disordered regions, might be more prominent than domain architectural changes. The problem of identifying protein isoforms is, however, still not resolved. Clearly, many splice forms identified through detection of mRNA sequences appear to produce 'nonfunctional' proteins, such as proteins with missing internal secondary structure elements. Here, we review the state of the art methods for identification of functional isoforms and present a summary of what is known, thus far, about alternative splicing with regard to protein domain architectures.

Variants affecting exon skipping contribute to complex traits

DNA variants that affect alternative splicing and the relative quantities of different gene transcripts have been shown to be risk alleles for some Mendelian diseases. However, for complex traits characterized by a low odds ratio for any single contributing variant, very few studies have investigated the contribution of splicing variants. The overarching goal of this study is to discover and characterize the role that variants affecting alternative splicing may play in the genetic etiology of complex traits, which include a significant number of the common human diseases. Specifically, we hypothesize that single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in splicing regulatory elements can be characterized in silico to identify variants affecting splicing, and that these variants may contribute to the etiology of complex diseases as well as the inter-individual variability in the ratios of alternative transcripts. We leverage high-throughput expression profiling to 1) experimentally validate our in silico predictions of skipped exons and 2) characterize the molecular role of intronic genetic variations in alternative splicing events in the context of complex human traits and diseases. We propose that intronic SNPs play a role as genetic regulators within splicing regulatory elements and show that their associated exon skipping events can affect protein domains and structure. We find that SNPs we would predict to affect exon skipping are enriched among the set of SNPs reported to be associated with complex human traits.

Alternative splicing is a common eukaryotic cellular mechanism that allows for the production of multiple proteins from one gene and occurs in 40%–90% of all human genes. Alternative splicing has been shown to be important for many critical biological processes, including development, evolution, and even psychological behavior. Additionally, alternative splicing has been associated with 15%–50% of human genetic diseases, including breast cancer; however, the precise mechanism by which genetic variations regulate this process remains to be fully elucidated. In this study, we develop an integrative approach that utilizes sequence-based analysis and genome-wide expression profiling to identify genetic variations that may affect alternative splicing. We also evaluate their enrichment among established disease-associated variations. Our study provides insights into the functionality of these variations and emphasizes their importance for complex human traits and diseases.

Characterization of the impact of alternative splicing on protein dynamics: the cases of glutathione S-transferase and ectodysplasin-A isoforms

Recent studies have shown how alternative splicing (AS), the process by which eukaryotic genes express more than one product, affects protein sequence and structure. However, little information is available on the impact of AS on protein dynamics, a property fundamental for protein function. In this work, we have addressed this issue using molecular dynamics simulations of the isoforms of two model proteins: glutathione S-transferase and ectodysplasin-A. We have found that AS does not have a noticeable impact on global or local structure fluctuations. We have also found that, quite interestingly, AS has a significant effect on the coupling between key structural elements such as surface cavities. Our results provide the first atom-level view of the impact of AS on protein dynamics, as far as we know. They can contribute to refine our present view of the relationship between AS and protein disorder and, more importantly, they reveal how AS may modify structural dynamic couplings in proteins.

The C-terminus of human Ca(v)2.3 voltage-gated calcium channel interacts with alternatively spliced calmodulin-2 expressed in two human cell lines

Ca(v)2.3 containing voltage-activated Ca(2+) channels are expressed in excitable cells and trigger neurotransmitter and peptide-hormone release. Their expression remote from the fast release sites leads to the accumulation of presynaptic Ca(2+) which can both, facilitate and inhibit the influx of Ca(2+) ions through Ca(v)2.3. The facilitated Ca(2+) influx was recently related to hippocampal postsynaptic facilitation and long term potentiation. To analyze Ca(2+) mediated modulation of cellular processes more in detail, protein partners of the carboxy terminal tail of Ca(v)2.3 were identified by yeast-2-hybrid screening, leading in two human cell lines to the detection of a novel, extended and rarely occurring splice variant of calmodulin-2 (CaM-2), called CaM-2-extended (CaM-2-ext). CaM-2-ext interacts biochemically with the C-terminus of Ca(v)2.3 similar to the classical CaM-2 as shown by co-immunoprecipitation. Functionally, only CaM-2-ext reduces whole cell inward currents significantly. The insertion of the novel 46 nts long exon and the consecutive expression of CaM-2-ext must be dependent on a new upstream translation initiation site which is only rarely used in the tested human cell lines. The structure of the N-terminal extension is predicted to be more hydrophobic than the remaining CaM-2-ext protein, suggesting that it may help to dock it to the lipophilic membrane surrounding.

Predicting the impact of alternative splicing on plant MADS domain protein function

Several genome-wide studies demonstrated that alternative splicing (AS) significantly increases the transcriptome complexity in plants. However, the impact of AS on the functional diversity of proteins is difficult to assess using genome-wide approaches. The availability of detailed sequence annotations for specific genes and gene families allows for a more detailed assessment of the potential effect of AS on their function. One example is the plant MADS-domain transcription factor family, members of which interact to form protein complexes that function in transcription regulation. Here, we perform an in silico analysis of the potential impact of AS on the protein-protein interaction capabilities of MIKC-type MADS-domain proteins. We first confirmed the expression of transcript isoforms resulting from predicted AS events. Expressed transcript isoforms were considered functional if they were likely to be translated and if their corresponding AS events either had an effect on predicted dimerisation motifs or occurred in regions known to be involved in multimeric complex formation, or otherwise, if their effect was conserved in different species. Nine out of twelve MIKC MADS-box genes predicted to produce multiple protein isoforms harbored putative functional AS events according to those criteria. AS events with conserved effects were only found at the borders of or within the K-box domain. We illustrate how AS can contribute to the evolution of interaction networks through an example of selective inclusion of a recently evolved interaction motif in the MADS AFFECTING FLOWERING1-3 (MAF1-3) subclade. Furthermore, we demonstrate the potential effect of an AS event in SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE (SVP), resulting in the deletion of a short sequence stretch including a predicted interaction motif, by overexpression of the fully spliced and the alternatively spliced SVP transcripts. For most of the AS events we were able to formulate hypotheses about the potential impact on the interaction capabilities of the encoded MIKC proteins.

Bioinformatic analysis of TE-spliced new exons within human, mouse and zebrafish genomes

Recent studies indicate major roles for transposable elements (TEs) in alternative splicing. In this study, we conducted genome-wide alternative splicing analyses focusing on new internal exon birth derived from TEs in human, mouse, and zebrafish genomes. We identified two different exon sets, TE-spliced exons and non-TE-spliced exons. The proportion of TE-spliced exons was nearly twice as high as the proportion of non-TE-spliced exons in the coding sequence (CDS) region. Detailed analysis of various families of TEs in three different species of TE-spliced exons revealed a different pattern in zebrafish. In our analysis, we could identify the functional role of TE insertions in the vertebrate genome affecting mRNA splicing machinery. Their effects can be directly linked to the shift from constitutive to alternative splicing during primate evolution. Our results indicate that TEs have a significant effect on shaping new internal exons in human, mouse, and zebrafish transcriptomes.

Intronic motif pairs cooperate across exons to promote pre-mRNA splicing

BACKGROUND

A very early step in splice site recognition is exon definition, a process that is as yet poorly understood. Communication between the two ends of an exon is thought to be required for this step. We report genome-wide evidence for exons being defined through the combinatorial activity of motifs located in flanking intronic regions.

RESULTS

Strongly co-occurring motifs were found to specifically reside in four intronic regions surrounding a large number of human exons. These paired motifs occur around constitutive and alternative exons but not pseudo exons. Most co-occurring motifs are limited to intronic regions within 100 nucleotides of the exon. They are preferentially associated with weaker exons. Their pairing is conserved in evolution and they exhibit a lower frequency of single nucleotide polymorphism when paired. Paired motifs display specificity with respect to distance from the exon borders and in constitutive versus alternative splicing. Many resemble binding sites for heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins. Specific pairs are associated with tissue-specific genes, the higher expression of which coincides with that of the pertinent RNA binding proteins. Tested pairs acted synergistically to enhance exon inclusion, and this enhancement was found to be exon-specific.

CONCLUSIONS

The exon-flanking sequence pairs identified here by genomic analysis promote exon inclusion and may play a role in the exon definition step in pre-mRNA splicing. We propose a model in which multiple concerted interactions are required between exonic sequences and flanking intronic sequences to effect exon definition.

Characterization of the neuroligin gene family expression and evolution in zebrafish

Neuroligins constitute a family of transmembrane proteins localized at the postsynaptic side of both excitatory and inhibitory synapses of the central nervous system. They are involved in synaptic function and maturation and recent studies have linked mutations in specific human Neuroligins to mental retardation and autism. We isolated the human Neuroligin homologs in Danio rerio. Next, we studied their gene structures and we reconstructed the evolution of the Neuroligin genes across vertebrate phyla. Using reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, we analyzed the expression and alternative splicing pattern of each gene during zebrafish embryonic development and in different adult organs. By in situ hybridization, we analyzed the temporal and spatial expression pattern during embryonic development and larval stages and we found that zebrafish Neuroligins are expressed throughout the nervous system. Globally, our results indicate that, during evolution, specific subfunctionalization events occurred within paralogous members of this gene family in zebrafish.

Projection of gene-protein networks to the functional space of the proteome and its application to analysis of organism complexity

We consider the problem of biological complexity via a projection of protein-coding genes of complex organisms onto the functional space of the proteome. The latter can be defined as a set of all functions committed by proteins of an organism. Alternative splicing (AS) allows an organism to generate diverse mature RNA transcripts from a single mRNA strand and thus it could be one of the key mechanisms of increasing of functional complexity of the organism's proteome and a driving force of biological evolution. Thus, the projection of transcription units (TU) and alternative splice-variant (SV) forms onto proteome functional space could generate new types of relational networks (e.g. SV-protein function networks, SFN) and lead to discoveries of novel evolutionarily conservative functional modules. Such types of networks might provide new reliable characteristics of organism complexity and a better understanding of the evolutionary integration and plasticity of interconnection of genome-transcriptome-proteome functions.

Alternative splicing of transcription factors' genes: beyond the increase of proteome diversity

Functional modification of transcription regulators may lead to developmental changes and phenotypical differences between species. In this work, we study the influence of alternative splicing on transcription factors in human and mouse. Our results show that the impact of alternative splicing on transcription factors is similar in both species, meaning that the ways to increase variability should also be similar. However, when looking at the expression patterns of transcription factors, we observe that they tend to diverge regardless of the role of alternative splicing. Finally, we hypothesise that transcription regulation of alternatively spliced transcription factors could play an important role in the phenotypical differences between species, without discarding other phenomena or functional families.

Convergent evolution of alternative splices at domain boundaries of the BK channel

Alternative splicing is a widespread mechanism for generating transcript diversity in higher eukaryotic genomes. The alternative splices of the large-conductance calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel have been the subject of a good deal of experimental functional characterization in the Arthropoda, Chordata, and Nematoda phyla. In this review, we examine a list of splices of the BK channel by manual curation of Unigene clusters mapped to mouse, human, chicken, Drosophila, and Caenorhabditis elegans genomes. We find that BK alternative splices do not appear to be conserved across phyla. Despite this lack of conservation, splices occur in both vertebrates and invertebrates at identical regions of the channel at experimentally established domain boundaries. The fact that, across phyla, unique splices occur at experimentally established domain boundaries suggests a prominent role for the convergent evolution of alternative splices that produce functional changes via changes in interdomain communication.

Structural implication of splicing stochastics

Even though nearly every human gene has at least one alternative splice form, very little is so far known about the structure and function of resulting protein products. It is becoming increasingly clear that a significant fraction of all isoforms are products of noisy selection of splice sites and thus contribute little to actual functional diversity, and may potentially be deleterious. In this study, we examine the impact of alternative splicing on protein sequence and structure in three datasets: alternative splicing events conserved across multiple species, alternative splicing events in genes that are strongly linked to disease and all observed alternative splicing events. We find that the vast majority of all alternative isoforms result in unstable protein conformations. In contrast to that, the small subset of isoforms conserved across species tends to maintain protein structural integrity to a greater extent. Alternative splicing in disease-associated genes produces unstable structures just as frequently as all other genes, indicating that selection to reduce the effects of alternative splicing on this set is not especially pronounced. Overall, the properties of alternative spliced proteins are consistent with the outcome of noisy selection of splice sites by splicing machinery.

Comparative analysis indicates that alternative splicing in plants has a limited role in functional expansion of the proteome

Background

Alternative splicing (AS) is a widespread phenomenon in higher eukaryotes but the extent to which it leads to functional protein isoforms and to proteome expansion at large is still a matter of debate. In contrast to animal species, for which AS has been studied extensively at the protein and functional level, protein-centered studies of AS in plant species are scarce. Here we investigate the functional impact of AS in dicot and monocot plant species using a comparative approach.

Results

Detailed comparison of AS events in alternative spliced orthologs from the dicot Arabidopsis thaliana and the monocot Oryza sativa (rice) revealed that the vast majority of AS events in both species do not result from functional conservation. Transcript isoforms that are putative targets for the nonsense-mediated decay (NMD) pathway are as likely to contain conserved AS events as isoforms that are translated into proteins. Similar results were obtained when the same comparison was performed between the two more closely related monocot species rice and Zea mays (maize).

Genome-wide computational analysis of functional protein domains encoded in alternatively and constitutively spliced genes revealed that only the RNA recognition motif (RRM) is overrepresented in alternatively spliced genes in all species analyzed. In contrast, three domain types were overrepresented in constitutively spliced genes. AS events were found to be less frequent within than outside predicted protein domains and no domain type was found to be enriched with AS introns. Analysis of AS events that result in the removal of complete protein domains revealed that only a small number of domain types is spliced-out in all species analyzed. Finally, in a substantial fraction of cases where a domain is completely removed, this domain appeared to be a unit of a tandem repeat.

Conclusion

The results from the ortholog comparisons suggest that the ability of a gene to produce more than one functional protein through AS does not persist during evolution. Cross-species comparison of the results of the protein-domain oriented analyses indicates little correspondence between the analyzed species. Based on the premise that functional genetic features are most likely to be conserved during evolution, we conclude that AS has only a limited role in functional expansion of the proteome in plants.

Intron evolution: testing hypotheses of intron evolution using the phylogenomics of tetraspanins

Background

Although large scale informatics studies on introns can be useful in making broad inferences concerning patterns of intron gain and loss, more specific questions about intron evolution at a finer scale can be addressed using a gene family where structure and function are well known. Genome wide surveys of tetraspanins from a broad array of organisms with fully sequenced genomes are an excellent means to understand specifics of intron evolution. Our approach incorporated several new fully sequenced genomes that cover the major lineages of the animal kingdom as well as plants, protists and fungi. The analysis of exon/intron gene structure in such an evolutionary broad set of genomes allowed us to identify ancestral intron structure in tetraspanins throughout the eukaryotic tree of life.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We performed a phylogenomic analysis of the intron/exon structure of the tetraspanin protein family. In addition, to the already characterized tetraspanin introns numbered 1 through 6 found in animals, three additional ancient, phase 0 introns we call 4a, 4b and 4c were found. These three novel introns in combination with the ancestral introns 1 to 6, define three basic tetraspanin gene structures which have been conserved throughout the animal kingdom. Our phylogenomic approach also allows the estimation of the time at which the introns of the 33 human tetraspanin paralogs appeared, which in many cases coincides with the concomitant acquisition of new introns. On the other hand, we observed that new introns (introns other than 1–6, 4a, b and c) were not randomly inserted into the tetraspanin gene structure. The region of tetraspanin genes corresponding to the small extracellular loop (SEL) accounts for only 10.5% of the total sequence length but had 46% of the new animal intron insertions.

Conclusions/Significance

Our results indicate that tests of intron evolution are strengthened by the phylogenomic approach with specific gene families like tetraspanins. These tests add to our understanding of genomic innovation coupled to major evolutionary divergence events, functional constraints and the timing of the appearance of evolutionary novelty.

Splice-mediated Variants of Proteins (SpliVaP) - data and characterization of changes in signatures among protein isoforms due to alternative splicing

BACKGROUND

It is often the case that mammalian genes are alternatively spliced; the resulting alternate transcripts often encode protein isoforms that differ in amino acid sequences. Changes among the protein isoforms can alter the cellular properties of proteins. The effect can range from a subtle modulation to a complete loss of function.

RESULTS

(i) We examined human splice-mediated protein isoforms (as extracted from a manually curated data set, and from a computationally predicted data set) for differences in the annotation for protein signatures (Pfam domains and PRINTS fingerprints) and we characterized the differences & their effects on protein functionalities. An important question addressed relates to the extent of protein isoforms that may lack any known function in the cell. (ii) We present a database that reports differences in protein signatures among human splice-mediated protein isoform sequences.

CONCLUSION

(i) Characterization: The work points to distinct sets of alternatively spliced genes with varying degrees of annotation for the splice-mediated protein isoforms. Protein molecular functions seen to be often affected are those that relate to: binding, catalytic, transcription regulation, structural molecule, transporter, motor, and antioxidant; and the processes that are often affected are nucleic acid binding, signal transduction, and protein-protein interactions. Signatures are often included/excluded and truncated in length among protein isoforms; truncation is seen as the predominant type of change. Analysis points to the following novel aspects: (a) Analysis using data from the manually curated Vega indicates that one in 8.9 genes can lead to a protein isoform of no "known" function; and one in 18 expressed protein isoforms can be such an "orphan" isoform; the corresponding numbers as seen with computationally predicted ASD data set are: one in 4.9 genes and one in 9.8 isoforms. (b) When swapping of signatures occurs, it is often between those of same functional classifications. (c) Pfam domains can occur in varying lengths, and PRINTS fingerprints can occur with varying number of constituent motifs among isoforms - since such a variation is seen in large number of genes, it could be a general mechanism to modulate protein function. (ii)

DATA

The reported resource (at http://www.bioinformatica.crs4.org/tools/dbs/splivap/) provides the community ability to access data on splice-mediated protein isoforms (with value-added annotation such as association with diseases) through changes in protein signatures.

Integrating expression data with domain interaction networks

Summary: Recent studies have revealed that alternative splicing plays an important role in the observed protein and interaction diversity. Special microarrays allow for measuring gene expression at the exon level and thus for studying alternative transcripts and their corresponding protein domain architecture. We have developed the Cytoscape plugin DomainGraph that enables the visualization and detailed study of domain–domain interactions forming protein interaction networks. In addition, the integration of exon expression data supports the analysis of alternative splicing events and the characterization of their effects on the protein and domain interaction network. Different expression patterns between human tissues or cells can be identified by comparing the generated domain graphs.

Availability: The plugin DomainGraph and the online documentation are available at http://domaingraph.bioinf.mpi-inf.mpg.de.

Contact:mario.albrecht@mpi-inf.mpg.de

Genome-wide analysis of transcript isoform variation in humans

We have performed a genome-wide analysis of common genetic variation controlling differential expression of transcript isoforms in the CEU HapMap population using a comprehensive exon tiling microarray covering 17,897 genes. We detected 324 genes with significant associations between flanking SNPs and transcript levels. Of these, 39% reflected changes in whole gene expression and 55% reflected transcript isoform changes such as splicing variants (exon skipping, alternative splice site use, intron retention), differential 5' UTR (initiation of transcription) use, and differential 3' UTR (alternative polyadenylation) use. These results demonstrate that the regulatory effects of genetic variation in a normal human population are far more complex than previously observed. This extra layer of molecular diversity may account for natural phenotypic variation and disease susceptibility.

A Sequence-Based Model Accounts Largely for the Relationship of Intron Positions to Protein Structural Features

Claims of intron-structure correlations have played a major role in debates surrounding split gene origins. In the formative (as opposed to disruptive or "insertional") model of split gene origins, introns represent the scars of chimaeric gene assembly. When analyzed retrospectively, formative introns should tend to fall between modular units, if such units exist, or at least to exhibit a preference for sites favorable to chimaera formation. However, there is another possible source of preferences: under a disruptive model of split gene origins, fortuitous intron-structure correlations may arise because the gain of introns is biased with respect to flanking nucleotide sequences. To investigate the extent to which a sequence-biased intron gain model may account for the present-day distribution of introns, data on over 10,000 introns in eukaryotic protein-coding genes were integrated with structural data from a set of 1,851 nonredundant protein chains. The positions of introns with respect to secondary structures, solvent accessibility, and so-called "modules" were evaluated relative to the expectations of a null model, a disruptive model based on amino acid frequencies at splice junctions, and a formative model defined relative to these. The null model can be excluded for most structural features and is highly improbable when intron sites are grouped by reading frame phase. Phase-dependent correlations with secondary structure and side-chain surface accessibility are particularly strong. However, these phase-dependent correlations are explained largely by the sequence-based disruptive model.

Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1 Interactome: evidence for the close connectivity of risk genes and a potential synaptic basis for schizophrenia

Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) is a schizophrenia risk gene associated with cognitive deficits in both schizophrenics and the normal ageing population. In this study, we have generated a network of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) around DISC1. This has been achieved by utilising iterative yeast-two hybrid (Y2H) screens, combined with detailed pathway and functional analysis. This so-called 'DISC1 interactome' contains many novel PPIs and provides a molecular framework to explore the function of DISC1. The network implicates DISC1 in processes of cytoskeletal stability and organisation, intracellular transport and cell-cycle/division. In particular, DISC1 looks to have a PPI profile consistent with that of an essential synaptic protein, which fits well with the underlying molecular pathology observed at the synaptic level and the cognitive deficits seen behaviourally in schizophrenics. Utilising a similar approach with dysbindin (DTNBP1), a second schizophrenia risk gene, we show that dysbindin and DISC1 share common PPIs suggesting they may affect common biological processes and that the function of schizophrenia risk genes may converge.

Relating alternative splicing to proteome complexity and genome evolution

Prior to genomics, studies of alternative splicing primarily focused on the function and mechanism of alternative splicing in individual genes and exons. This has changed dramatically since the late 1990s. High-throughput genomics technologies, such as EST sequencing and microarrays designed to detect changes in splicing, led to genome-wide discoveries and quantification of alternative splicing in a wide range of species from human to Arabidopsis. Consensus estimates of AS frequency in the human genome grew from less than 5% in mid-1990s to as high as 60-74% now. The rapid growth in sequence and microarray data for alternative splicing has made it possible to look into the global impact of alternative splicing on protein function and evolution of genomes. In this chapter, we review recent research on alternative splicing's impact on proteomic complexity and its role in genome evolution.

Evaluation of epitope tags for protein detection after in vivo CNS gene transfer

Functional characterization of disease-related proteins, their splice variants and dominant negative mutants in the context of complex CNS tissues such as brain and retina is frequently assessed by in vivo gene transfer. For correct interpretation of results it is imperative that the protein under investigation is unambiguously detected in the transduced cell types and can be distinguished from any endogenously expressed physiological variants. Therefore the first systematic evaluation of epitope tags used to trace ectopically expressed proteins in the central nervous system is presented here. Substantial differences in the performances of various epitope tag-antibody combinations with respect to sensitivity, specificity and influence of the epitope tag on the fusion protein are elucidated. Epitope tags already established for protein detection in vitro and to some extent in vivo (c-Myc, HA and FLAG tags) were immunohistochemically detected with high sensitivity. However, detection of these tags revealed problems with background staining and we also document structural and functional influence of the tags on the fusion protein. In order to prevent such unwanted side-effects, epitope tags which have not yet been used for in vivo applications (IRS, EE and AU1 tags) were characterized in brain, retina and cultured neurons. While use of the IRS and EE tags was hindered by low sensitivity or specificity, optimal results were obtained with the AU1 epitope, which may develop into a standard tool for detection of ectopic protein expression in the central nervous system.

Alternative splicing in concert with protein intrinsic disorder enables increased functional diversity in multicellular organisms

Alternative splicing of pre-mRNA generates two or more protein isoforms from a single gene, thereby contributing to protein diversity. Despite intensive efforts, an understanding of the protein structure-function implications of alternative splicing is still lacking. Intrinsic disorder, which is a lack of equilibrium 3D structure under physiological conditions, may provide this understanding. Intrinsic disorder is a common phenomenon, particularly in multicellular eukaryotes, and is responsible for important protein functions including regulation and signaling. We hypothesize that polypeptide segments affected by alternative splicing are most often intrinsically disordered such that alternative splicing enables functional and regulatory diversity while avoiding structural complications. We analyzed a set of 46 differentially spliced genes encoding experimentally characterized human proteins containing both structured and intrinsically disordered amino acid segments. We show that 81% of 75 alternatively spliced fragments in these proteins were associated with fully (57%) or partially (24%) disordered protein regions. Regions affected by alternative splicing were significantly biased toward encoding disordered residues, with a vanishingly small P value. A larger data set composed of 558 SwissProt proteins with known isoforms produced by 1,266 alternatively spliced fragments was characterized by applying the pondr vsl1 disorder predictor. Results from prediction data are consistent with those obtained from experimental data, further supporting the proposed hypothesis. Associating alternative splicing with protein disorder enables the time- and tissue-specific modulation of protein function needed for cell differentiation and the evolution of multicellular organisms.

Alternative splicing regulation at tandem 3' splice sites

Alternative splicing (AS) constitutes a major mechanism creating protein diversity in humans. Previous bioinformatics studies based on expressed sequence tag and mRNA data have identified many AS events that are conserved between humans and mice. Of these events, ∼25% are related to alternative choices of 3′ and 5′ splice sites. Surprisingly, half of all these events involve 3′ splice sites that are exactly 3 nt apart. These tandem 3′ splice sites result from the presence of the NAGNAG motif at the acceptor splice site, recently reported to be widely spread in the human genome. Although the NAGNAG motif is common in human genes, only a small subset of sites with this motif is confirmed to be involved in AS. We examined the NAGNAG motifs and observed specific features such as high sequence conservation of the motif, high conservation of ∼30 bp at the intronic regions flanking the 3′ splice site and overabundance of cis-regulatory elements, which are characteristic of alternatively spliced tandem acceptor sites and can distinguish them from the constitutive sites in which the proximal NAG splice site is selected. Our findings imply that AS at tandem splice sites and constitutive splicing of the distal NAG are highly regulated.

Evolutionarily conserved and diverged alternative splicing events show different expression and functional profiles

To better decipher the functional impact of alternative splicing, we classified alternative splicing events in 10 818 pairs of human and mouse genes based on conservation at genome and transcript levels. Expression levels of conserved alternative splices in human and mouse expressed sequence tag databases show strong correlation, indicating that alternative splicing is similarly regulated in both species. A total of 43% (8921) of mouse alternative splices could be found in the human genome but not in human transcripts. Five of eleven tested mouse predictions were observed in human tissues, demonstrating that mouse transcripts provide a valuable resource for identifying alternative splicing events in human genes. Combining gene-specific measures of conserved and diverged alternative splicing with both gene classification based on Gene Ontology (GO) and microarray-determined gene expression in 52 diverse human tissues and cell lines, we found conserved alternative splicing most enriched in brain-expressed signaling pathways. Diverged alternative splicing is more prevalent in testis and cancerous cell line up-regulated processes, including protein biosynthesis, responses to stress and responses to endogenous stimuli. Using conservation as a surrogate for functional significance, these results suggest that alternative splicing plays an important role in enhancing the functional capacity of central nervous systems, while non-functional splicing more frequently occurs in testis and cell lines, possibly as a result of cellular stress and rapid proliferation.

Functional divergence of proteins through frameshift mutations

Frameshift mutations are generally considered to be deleterious and of little importance for the evolution of novel gene functions. However, by screening an exhaustive set of vertebrate gene families, we found that, when a second transcript encoding the original gene product compensates for this mutation, frameshift mutations can be retained for millions of years and enable new gene functions to be acquired.

Creation and disruption of protein features by alternative splicing -- a novel mechanism to modulate function

A new mechanism of alternative splicing is proposed which creates a protein feature by putting together two non-consecutive exons and destroys a feature by inserting an exon in its body. Evidence for this rare mechanism is provided by a genome-wide search with four specific protein features.

Background

Alternative splicing often occurs in the coding sequence and alters protein structure and function. It is mainly carried out in two ways: by skipping exons that encode a certain protein feature and by introducing a frameshift that changes the downstream protein sequence. These mechanisms are widespread and well investigated.

Results

Here, we propose an additional mechanism of alternative splicing to modulate protein function. This mechanism creates a protein feature by putting together two non-consecutive exons or destroys a feature by inserting an exon in its body. In contrast to other mechanisms, the individual parts of the feature are present in both splice variants but the feature is only functional in the splice form where both parts are merged. We provide evidence for this mechanism by performing a genome-wide search with four protein features: transmembrane helices, phosphorylation and glycosylation sites, and Pfam domains.

Conclusion

We describe a novel type of event that creates or removes a protein feature by alternative splicing. Current data suggest that these events are rare. Besides the four features investigated here, this mechanism is conceivable for many other protein features, especially for small linear protein motifs. It is important for the characterization of functional differences of two splice forms and should be considered in genome-wide annotation efforts. Furthermore, it offers a novel strategy for ab initio prediction of alternative splice events.

Large-scale analysis of human alternative protein isoforms: pattern classification and correlation with subcellular localization signals

We investigated human alternative protein isoforms of >2600 genes based on full-length cDNA clones and SwissProt. We classified the isoforms and examined their co-occurrence for each gene. Further, we investigated potential relationships between these changes and differential subcellular localization. The two most abundant patterns were the one with different C-terminal regions and the one with an internal insertion, which together account for 43% of the total. Although changes of the N-terminal region are less common than those of the C-terminal region, extension of the C-terminal region is much less common than that of the N-terminal region, probably because of the difficulty of removing stop codons in one isoform. We also found that there are some frequently used combinations of co-occurrence in alternative isoforms. We interpret this as evidence that there is some structural relationship which produces a repertoire of isoformal patterns. Finally, many terminal changes are predicted to cause differential subcellular localization, especially in targeting either peroxisomes or mitochondria. Our study sheds new light on the enrichment of the human proteome through alternative splicing and related events. Our database of alternative protein isoforms is available through the internet.

SpliceInfo: an information repository for mRNA alternative splicing in human genome

We have developed an information repository named SpliceInfo to collect the occurrences of the four major alternative-splicing (AS) modes in human genome; these include exon skipping, 5′-alternative splicing, 3′-alternative splicing and intron retention. The dataset is derived by comparing the nucleotide and protein sequences available for a given gene for evidence of AS. Additional features such as the tissue specificity of the mRNA, the protein domain contained by exons, the GC-ratio of exons, the repeats contained within the exons, and the Gene Ontology are annotated computationally for each exonic region that is alternatively spliced. Motivated by a previous investigation of AS-related motifs such as exonic splicing enhancer and exonic splicing silencer, this resource also provides a means of identifying motifs candidates and this should help to identify potential regulatory mechanisms within a particular exonic sequence set and its two flanking intronic sequence sets. This is carried out using motif discovery tools to identify motif candidates related to alternative splicing regulation and together with a secondary structure prediction tool, will help in the identification of the structural properties of such regulatory motifs. The integrated resource is now available on http://SpliceInfo.mbc.NCTU.edu.tw/.

Analysis of multiple Invs transcripts in mouse and MDCK cells

Infantile nephronophthisis is associated with cystic kidneys, situs inversus, and INVS mutations. The function of the INVS product, inversin, is unknown but evidence suggests there are multiple inversin isoforms with differing molecular weights, cellular localization patterns, and binding partners. We used Northern blots, RT-PCR, and sequence analysis to identify alternative INVS transcripts. Northern blots probed with Invs cDNA detected four bands in normal mouse kidney. RT-PCR of mouse kidney RNA revealed Invs transcripts with skipping of exon 5, 11, or 13. We sequenced canine (MDCK-II cells) INVS and determined that the corresponding full-length protein shares identity with mouse (74%) and human (84%) inversin. Canine INVS produces a transcript that skips exon 12. Exon skips cause loss of inversin protein motifs, including ankyrin repeats, IQ domains, destruction boxes, and nuclear localization signals. Identification of INVS splice variants will help us determine which inversin protein motifs contribute to left-right asymmetry and kidney development.

Alternative Splice Variants Encoding Unstable Protein Domains Exist in the Human Brain

Alternative splicing has been recognized as a major mechanism by which protein diversity is increased without significantly increasing genome size in animals and has crucial medical implications, as many alternative splice variants are known to cause diseases. Despite the importance of knowing what structural changes alternative splicing introduces to the encoded proteins for the consideration of its significance, the problem has not been adequately explored. Therefore, we systematically examined the structures of the proteins encoded by the alternative splice variants in the HUGE protein database derived from long (>4 kb) human brain cDNAs. Limiting our analyses to reliable alternative splice junctions, we found alternative splice junctions to have a slight tendency to avoid the interior of SCOP domains and a strong statistically significant tendency to coincide with SCOP domain boundaries. These findings reflect the occurrence of some alternative splicing events that utilize protein structural units as a cassette. However, 50 cases were identified in which SCOP domains are disrupted in the middle by alternative splicing. In six of the cases, insertions are introduced at the molecular surface, presumably affecting protein functions, while in 11 of the cases alternatively spliced variants were found to encode pairs of stable and unstable proteins. The mRNAs encoding such unstable proteins are much less abundant than those encoding stable proteins and tend not to have corresponding mRNAs in non-primate species. We propose that most unstable proteins encoded by alternative splice variants lack normal functions and are an evolutionary dead-end.

The evolving roles of alternative splicing

Alternative splicing is now commonly thought to affect more than half of all human genes. Recent studies have investigated not only the scope but also the biological impact of alternative splicing on a large scale, revealing that its role in generating proteome diversity may be augmented by a role in regulation. For instance, protein function can be regulated by the removal of interaction or localization domains by alternative splicing. Alternative splicing can also regulate gene expression by splicing transcripts into unproductive mRNAs targeted for degradation. To fully understand the scope of alternative splicing, we must also determine how many of the predicted splice variants represent functional forms. Comparisons of alternative splicing between human and mouse genes show that predominant splice variants are usually conserved, but rare variants are less commonly shared. Evolutionary conservation of splicing patterns suggests functional importance and provides insight into the evolutionary history of alternative splicing.