A transcriptome atlas of rabbit revealed by PacBio single-molecule long-read sequencing

Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 9;7(1):7648. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-08138-z.

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that transcriptional diversity largely contributes to biological regulation in eukaryotes. Since the advent of second-generation sequencing technologies, a large number of RNA sequencing studies have considerably improved our understanding of transcriptome complexity. However, it still remains a huge challenge for obtaining full-length transcripts because of difficulties in the short read-based assembly. In the present study we employ PacBio single-molecule long-read sequencing technology for whole-transcriptome profiling in rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). We totally obtain 36,186 high-confidence transcripts from 14,474 genic loci, among which more than 23% of genic loci and 66% of isoforms have not been annotated yet within the current reference genome. Furthermore, about 17% of transcripts are computationally revealed to be non-coding RNAs. Up to 24,797 alternative splicing (AS) and 11,184 alternative polyadenylation (APA) events are detected within this de novo constructed transcriptome, respectively. The results provide a comprehensive set of reference transcripts and hence contribute to the improved annotation of rabbit genome.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alternative Splicing
  • Animals
  • Computational Biology* / methods
  • Computational Biology* / standards
  • Gene Expression Profiling* / methods
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing* / methods
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing* / standards
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • Polyadenylation
  • RNA, Untranslated
  • Rabbits
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Transcriptome*

Substances

  • RNA, Untranslated