Extension of human lncRNA transcripts by RACE coupled with long-read high-throughput sequencing (RACE-Seq)

Julien Lagarde, Barbara Uszczynska-Ratajczak, Javier Santoyo-Lopez, Jose Manuel Gonzalez, Electra Tapanari, Jonathan M. Mudge, Charles A. Steward, Laurens Wilming, Andrea Tanzer, Cédric Howald, Jacqueline Chrast, Alicia Vela-Boza, Antonio Rueda, Francisco J. Lopez-Domingo, Joaquin Dopazo, Alexandre Reymond, Roderic Guigó, Jennifer Harrow*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) constitute a large, yet mostly uncharacterized fraction of the mammalian transcriptome. Such characterization requires a comprehensive, high-quality annotation of their gene structure and boundaries, which is currently lacking. Here we describe RACE-Seq, an experimental workflow designed to address this based on RACE (rapid amplification of cDNA ends) and long-read RNA sequencing. We apply RACE-Seq to 398 human lncRNA genes in seven tissues, leading to the discovery of 2,556 on-target, novel transcripts. About 60% of the targeted loci are extended in either 5′ or 3′, often reaching genomic hallmarks of gene boundaries. Analysis of the novel transcripts suggests that lncRNAs are as long, have as many exons and undergo as much alternative splicing as protein-coding genes, contrary to current assumptions. Overall, we show that RACE-Seq is an effective tool to annotate an organism's deep transcriptome, and compares favourably to other targeted sequencing techniques.

Original languageEnglish
Article number12339
JournalNature Communications
Volume7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Aug 2016

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