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Transcription readthrough is prevalent in healthy human tissues and associated with inherent genomic features.

Transcription readthrough is prevalent in healthy human tissues and associated with inherent genomic features.

Authors :
Caldas, Paulo
Luz, Mariana
Baseggio, Simone
Andrade, Rita
Sobral, Daniel
Grosso, Ana Rita
Source :
Communications Biology. 1/15/2024, Vol. 7 Issue 1, p1-12. 12p.
Publication Year :
2024

Abstract

Transcription termination is a crucial step in the production of conforming mRNAs and functional proteins. Under cellular stress conditions, the transcription machinery fails to identify the termination site and continues transcribing beyond gene boundaries, a phenomenon designated as transcription readthrough. However, the prevalence and impact of this phenomenon in healthy human tissues remain unexplored. Here, we assessed transcription readthrough in almost 3000 transcriptome profiles representing 23 human tissues and found that 34% of the expressed protein-coding genes produced readthrough transcripts. The production of readthrough transcripts was restricted in genomic regions with high transcriptional activity and was associated with inefficient splicing and increased chromatin accessibility in terminal regions. In addition, we showed that these transcripts contained several binding sites for the same miRNA, unravelling a potential role as miRNA sponges. Overall, this work provides evidence that transcription readthrough is pervasive and non-stochastic, not only in abnormal conditions but also in healthy tissues. This suggests a potential role for such transcripts in modulating normal cellular functions. A comprehensive computational analysis of 3000 transcriptome profiles shows that transcription readthrough is pervasive and non-stochastic in both abnormal conditions and in healthy tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
23993642
Volume :
7
Issue :
1
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Communications Biology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
174800371
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-05779-5