Exploring the role of differential expression of splicing factors and regulators in tissue-specific alternative splicing

Alternative splicing (AS) is an important step in the pathway of gene expression and regulation. The splicing process is catalyzed by the Spliceosome, a complex molecular machinery that is dynamically assembled on the pre-mRNA in order to remove introns and ligate together exons. Perturbation of Cor...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Colì, Caterina
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:CBUC, CESCA
Repositorio:TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red
OAI Identifier:oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/668015
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10803/668015
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Alternative splicing
Spliceosome
Splicing regulation
Genotipe-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project
The cancer genome atlas
Splicing alternativo
Spliceosoma
Regulación de splicing
Proyecto de expresión de Genotipo-Tejido
Atlas de cáncer genómico
575
Descripción
Sumario:Alternative splicing (AS) is an important step in the pathway of gene expression and regulation. The splicing process is catalyzed by the Spliceosome, a complex molecular machinery that is dynamically assembled on the pre-mRNA in order to remove introns and ligate together exons. Perturbation of Core Spliceosomal Components (CSCs) -those components which are believed to be essential for intron removal in general- has been shown to affect splice site selection and AS. Little is known about whether this is a physiological mechanism of tissue-specific AS regulation. In this study, we investigate the potential role of CSCs and classical splicing regulators (CSRs) in tissue-specific AS and its variation across human populations by correlating differences in their levels of expression with AS changes across human organs and individuals. Our results recapitulate already known regulatory mechanisms and identify potential novel ones involving both CSRs and CSCs. We identified potential regulators whose gene expression alteration might play a role in human cancers. Moreover we observed that inclusion levels of some specific exons correlated with patient’s survival rate. Understanding the regulatory mechanisms behind will give precious insights on cancer biology and cancer treatment development.