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Comparative Study
. 2015 Mar 31;43(6):e40.
doi: 10.1093/nar/gku1365. Epub 2015 Jan 6.

iRNA-seq: computational method for genome-wide assessment of acute transcriptional regulation from total RNA-seq data

Affiliations
Comparative Study

iRNA-seq: computational method for genome-wide assessment of acute transcriptional regulation from total RNA-seq data

Jesper Grud Skat Madsen et al. Nucleic Acids Res. .

Abstract

RNA-seq is a sensitive and accurate technique to compare steady-state levels of RNA between different cellular states. However, as it does not provide an account of transcriptional activity per se, other technologies are needed to more precisely determine acute transcriptional responses. Here, we have developed an easy, sensitive and accurate novel computational method, IRNA-SEQ: , for genome-wide assessment of transcriptional activity based on analysis of intron coverage from total RNA-seq data. Comparison of the results derived from iRNA-seq analyses with parallel results derived using current methods for genome-wide determination of transcriptional activity, i.e. global run-on (GRO)-seq and RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) ChIP-seq, demonstrate that iRNA-seq provides similar results in terms of number of regulated genes and their fold change. However, unlike the current methods that are all very labor-intensive and demanding in terms of sample material and technologies, iRNA-seq is cheap and easy and requires very little sample material. In conclusion, iRNA-seq offers an attractive novel alternative to current methods for determination of changes in transcriptional activity at a genome-wide level.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Effect of acute TNF treatment on transcription in human SGBS adipocytes as assessed by RNA-seq and RNAPII ChIP-seq. Following 10 days in vitro differentiation, human SGBS adipocytes were treated with vehicle or TNF for 90 min before harvest of RNA for total RNA-seq and chromatin for RNAPII ChIP-seq. The screenshot from the UCSC genome browser illustrates intron/exon coverage and association with RNAPII at (A) the CTSZ locus; and (B) the ADH1B locus. Fold changes between vehicle and TNF samples are indicated to the right of the tracks.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Outline of the iRNA-seq pipeline. (A) iRNA-seq takes SAM/BAM input files and counts reads within intron regions of the longest isoform for each gene. All regions associated with Genbank mRNAs are subtracted from the regions to be counted and the remaining intron reads are summarized for each transcript. edgeR is then used to perform differential expression analysis. (B) Screenshot from the UCSC genome browser illustrating how differential exon usage (arrow A) and incomplete annotation (arrow B) result exon reads contributing to coverage in introns of PPARG1. In the iRNA-seq pipeline, such regions are excluded using the Genbank mRNA track.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Use of iRNA-seq for determination of acute transcriptional changes in response to TNF. Following 10 days in vitro differentiation, human SGBS adipocytes were treated with vehicle or TNF for 90 min before harvest of RNA for total RNA-seq and chromatin for RNAPII ChIP-seq. (A and B) MA-Plots illustrating fold changes (log2) and mean expression values (log2 normalized mean tag count) for exon (A) or intron (B) reads within RefSeq gene bodies in control versus TNF-stimulated SGBS adipocytes. Green and red dots represent genes that were determined to be up- and down-regulated, respectively, using edgeR (FDR < 0.01). (C) Bar diagram illustrating the number of genes identified to be significantly induced or repressed in intron and exon mode. A Fisher exact test was used to investigate dependency between the number of significant genes and the analysis method. (D) Boxplots illustrating mRNA half-lives of genes identified as differentially expressed using exon versus intron reads. mRNA half-lives were obtained from (27). The significance of the difference between medians was tested using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. (E) Strip chart comparing the TNF-induced change in expression of a subset of regulated genes (CFH, CTSZ, LYRM4, ADH1B, TMEM170B, VSTM4 and MARC1) in human SGBS adipocytes at exon and intron level using iRNA-seq and qPCR. (F and G) Correlation between changes in RNAPII occupancy and fold changes determined by iRNA-seq in intron (F) or exon (G) mode. To avoid noise from lowly expressed genes, independent filtering on average expression was used to remove the least expressed 30% of genes for each method before the pairwise comparisons. (H) Graph illustrating dependency on sequencing depth of iRNA-seq performance in intron and exon mode in terms of number of differentially expressed genes (FDR ≤ 0.01) detected. (I) Bar diagram illustrating the fraction of countable reads mapping to unique genes, exons or introns. (J) Bar diagram illustrating how iRNA-seq performance using intron reads (blue) and exon reads (purple) depends on biological replicates. Each total RNA-seq sample was subsampled to 50 million reads, and the number of differentially regulated genes (FDR ≤ 0.01) using monoplicates, duplicates and triplicates were determined. For the 3 monoplicates and the 3 possible combinations of duplicates, the median numbers of differentially regulated genes were plotted.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Comparison of exon and intron reads in time-course studies. Total RNA-seq data from a time-course study (0, 30, 60, 180 and 360 min) of the transcriptional response to TNF in human A549 cells (19), were downloaded from GEO and each time point was analyzed against time point 0 using the iRNA-seq pipeline in intron and exon mode. (A) Bar diagram illustrating the ratio of the number of differentially expressed genes detected in intron versus exon mode at each time point. A Fisher exact test was used to determine that the number of significant genes for all time points were dependent on the analysis method. (B) Heatmaps illustrating the Pearson's correlation coefficient (left) and the slope of the linear regression through (0.0) (right) for fold changes determined by analysis of exon and intron reads for each time point. To avoid noise from lowly expressed genes, independent filtering on average expression was used to remove the 30% least expressed genes before the correlation analysis.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Comparison of iRNA-seq with other methods. (A and B) GRO-seq, RNAPII ChIP-seq and RNA-seq data from a 60-min TNF stimulation of human IMR90 lung fibroblasts (20), were downloaded from GEO (GSE43070), and RNA-seq raw data were analyzed using iRNA-seq. (A) Heatmap illustrating the Pearson's correlation coefficient (red) and the slope of the linear regression through (0.0) (blue) for fold changes determined by GRO-seq, RNAPII ChIP-seq and iRNA-seq in intron and exon mode. To avoid noise from lowly expressed genes, independent filtering on average expression across experimental conditions was used to remove the least expressed 30% of genes for each method. Furthermore, only genes with fold changes >2 or <0.5 in the GRO-seq experiment were considered. (B) Graph illustrating dependency on sequencing depth for GRO-seq, RNAPII-ChIP-seq and iRNA-seq performance in terms of number of differentially expressed genes (FDR ≤ 0.05) detected. (C) 4sU-RNA-seq data from a 60-min LPS stimulation of mouse dendritic cells (13), were downloaded from GEO (GSE25432) and analyzed using iRNA-seq. Bar diagrams illustrate the number of differentially (FDR ≤ 0.05) induced and repressed genes identified based on reads in introns or whole gene bodies. A Fisher exact test was used to investigate dependency between the number of significantly regulated genes and the analysis method.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Methods overview. Outline of iRNA-seq, GRO-seq and RNAPII ChIP-seq methodologies illustrates the advantages of the iRNA-seq method. In addition to the low amount of input material required, advantages of the iRNA-seq method include a fast and easy protocol and parallel information about mature transcript levels. * (30), † (–33), ‡ (12,28).

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