Comparative Analysis and Classification of Cassette Exons and Constitutive Exons

Alternative splicing (AS) is a major engine that drives proteome diversity in mammalian genomes and is a widespread cause of human hereditary diseases. More than 95% of genes in the human genome are alternatively spliced, and the most common type of AS is the cassette exon. Recent discoveries have d...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ying Cui, Meng Cai, H. Eugene Stanley
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2017-01-01
Series:BioMed Research International
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2017/7323508
Description
Summary:Alternative splicing (AS) is a major engine that drives proteome diversity in mammalian genomes and is a widespread cause of human hereditary diseases. More than 95% of genes in the human genome are alternatively spliced, and the most common type of AS is the cassette exon. Recent discoveries have demonstrated that the cassette exon plays an important role in genetic diseases. To discover the formation mechanism of cassette exon events, we statistically analyze cassette exons and find that cassette exon events are strongly influenced by individual exons that are smaller in size and that have a lower GC content, more codon terminations, and weaker splice sites. We propose an improved random-forest-based hybrid method of distinguishing cassette exons from constitutive exons. Our method achieves a high accuracy in classifying cassette exons and constitutive exons and is verified to outperform previous approaches. It is anticipated that this study will facilitate a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms in cassette exons.
ISSN:2314-6133
2314-6141