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Nakatsu K, Jijiwa M, Khadka V, Nasu M, Deng Y. sRNAfrag: a pipeline and suite of tools to analyze fragmentation in small RNA sequencing data. Brief Bioinform 2023; 25:bbad515. [PMID: 38243693 PMCID: PMC10796253 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bbad515] [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: 10/21/2023] [Revised: 11/25/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/21/2024] Open
Abstract
Fragments derived from small RNAs such as small nucleolar RNAs are biologically relevant but remain poorly understood. To address this gap, we developed sRNAfrag, a modular and interoperable tool designed to standardize the quantification and analysis of small RNA fragmentation across various biotypes. The tool outputs a set of tables forming a relational database, allowing for an in-depth exploration of biologically complex events such as multi-mapping and RNA fragment stability across different cell types. In a benchmark test, sRNAfrag was able to identify established loci of mature microRNAs solely based on sequencing data. Furthermore, the 5' seed sequence could be rediscovered by utilizing a visualization approach primarily applied in multi-sequence-alignments. Utilizing the relational database outputs, we detected 1411 snoRNA fragment conservation events between two out of four eukaryotic species, providing an opportunity to explore motifs through evolutionary time and conserved fragmentation patterns. Additionally, the tool's interoperability with other bioinformatics tools like ViennaRNA amplifies its utility for customized analyses. We also introduce a novel loci-level variance-score which provides insights into the noise around peaks and demonstrates biological relevance by distinctly separating breast cancer and neuroblastoma cell lines after dimension reduction when applied to small nucleolar RNAs. Overall, sRNAfrag serves as a versatile foundation for advancing our understanding of small RNA fragments and offers a functional foundation to further small RNA research. Availability: https://github.com/kenminsoo/sRNAfrag.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ken Nakatsu
- Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Emory University, 201 Dowman Dr, 30322, Georgia, United States of America
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
| | - Mayumi Jijiwa
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
| | - Vedbar Khadka
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
| | - Masaki Nasu
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
| | - Youping Deng
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
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Nakatsu K, Jijiwa M, Khadka V, Nasu M, Huo M, Deng Y. sRNAfrag: A pipeline and suite of tools to analyze fragmentation in small RNA sequencing data. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.08.19.553943. [PMID: 37662282 PMCID: PMC10473647 DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.19.553943] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/05/2023]
Abstract
Fragments derived from small RNAs such as small nucleolar RNAs hold biological relevance. However, they remain poorly understood, calling for more comprehensive methods for analysis. We developed sRNAfrag, a standardized workflow and set of scripts to quantify and analyze sRNA fragmentation of any biotype. In a benchmark, it is able to detect loci of mature microRNAs fragmented from precursors and, utilizing multi-mapping events, the conserved 5' seed sequence of miRNAs which we believe may extraoplate to other small RNA fragments. The tool detected 1411 snoRNA fragment conservation events between 2/4 eukaryotic species, providing the opportunity to explore motifs and fragmentation patterns not only within species, but between. Availability: https://github.com/kenminsoo/sRNAfrag.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ken Nakatsu
- Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Emory University, 201 Dowman Dr, Atlanta, 30322, Georgia, United States of America
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, Honolulu, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
| | - Mayumi Jijiwa
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, Honolulu, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
| | - Vedbar Khadka
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, Honolulu, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
| | - Masaki Nasu
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, Honolulu, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
| | - Matthew Huo
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, Honolulu, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
- Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N Charles St, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, United States of America
| | - Youping Deng
- Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, 651 Ilalo St, Honolulu, 96813, Hawaii, United States of America
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