Abstract
Purpose: :
Alternative processing of pre-mRNA plays an important role in protein diversity. Previous studies on alternative splicing often focus on the spatial patterns of protein isoforms across different tissues. Here we studied the dynamics of alternative splicing during mouse retina development.
Methods: :
Affymetrix mouse exon arrays were used to measure the retinal expression profiles across 6 developmental stages from E15 to adult. We then performed a series of bioinformatics analysis of the alternative splicing patterns.
Results: :
We observed that within the retina, retina-related genes tend to undergo increased alternative splicing as compared to other genes. The status of alternative splicing of retina-related genes can in fact serve as a stage specific signature. In addition, we identified several candidate cis-regulatory elements for retinal alternative splicing by comparing the relative occurrence of sequence motifs near exons that are and are not differentially spliced. The enrichment of the candidate splicing regulatory elements showed strong correlation with the expression level of several known splicing factors, suggesting the potential importance of the identified candidate cis-regulatory elements.
Conclusions: :
These results will hopefully help in the development of the information necessary to understand the dynamics and molecular mechanisms of retinal alternative splicing during development and disease.
Keywords: gene/expression • retina • gene microarray