Dataset Information

A graph-based algorithm for RNA-seq data normalization.

ABSTRACT: The use of RNA-sequencing has garnered much attention in recent years for characterizing and understanding various biological systems. However, it remains a major challenge to gain insights from a large number of RNA-seq experiments collectively, due to the normalization problem. Normalization has been challenging due to an inherent circularity, requiring that RNA-seq data be normalized before any pattern of differential (or non-differential) expression can be ascertained; meanwhile, the prior knowledge of non-differential transcripts is crucial to the normalization process. Some methods have successfully overcome this problem by the assumption that most transcripts are not differentially expressed. However, when RNA-seq profiles become more abundant and heterogeneous, this assumption fails to hold, leading to erroneous normalization. We present a normalization procedure that does not rely on this assumption, nor prior knowledge about the reference transcripts. This algorithm is based on a graph constructed from intrinsic correlations among RNA-seq transcripts and seeks to identify a set of densely connected vertices as references. Application of this algorithm on our synthesized validation data showed that it could recover the reference transcripts with high precision, thus resulting in high-quality normalization. On a realistic data set from the ENCODE project, this algorithm gave good results and could finish in a reasonable time. These preliminary results imply that we may be able to break the long persisting circularity problem in RNA-seq normalization.

SUBMITTER: Tran DT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6980396 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A graph-based algorithm for RNA-seq data normalization.

Tran Diem-Trang DT Bhaskara Aditya A Kuberan Balagurunathan B Might Matthew M

PloS one 20200124 1

The use of RNA-sequencing has garnered much attention in recent years for characterizing and understanding various biological systems. However, it remains a major challenge to gain insights from a large number of RNA-seq experiments collectively, due to the normalization problem. Normalization has been challenging due to an inherent circularity, requiring that RNA-seq data be normalized before any pattern of differential (or non-differential) expression can be ascertained; meanwhile, the prior k ...[more]

PMID: 31978105

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Project description:MotivationIn eukaryotic cells, alternative splicing expands the diversity of RNA transcripts and plays an important role in tissue-specific differentiation, and can be misregulated in disease. To understand these processes, there is a great need for methods to detect differential transcription between samples. Our focus is on samples observed using short-read RNA sequencing (RNA-seq).MethodsWe characterize differential transcription between two samples as the difference in the relative abundance of the transcript isoforms present in the samples. The magnitude of differential transcription of a gene between two samples can be measured by the square root of the Jensen Shannon Divergence (JSD*) between the gene's transcript abundance vectors in each sample. We define a weighted splice-graph representation of RNA-seq data, summarizing in compact form the alignment of RNA-seq reads to a reference genome. The flow difference metric (FDM) identifies regions of differential RNA transcript expression between pairs of splice graphs, without need for an underlying gene model or catalog of transcripts. We present a novel non-parametric statistical test between splice graphs to assess the significance of differential transcription, and extend it to group-wise comparison incorporating sample replicates.ResultsUsing simulated RNA-seq data consisting of four technical replicates of two samples with varying transcription between genes, we show that (i) the FDM is highly correlated with JSD* (r=0.82) when average RNA-seq coverage of the transcripts is sufficiently deep; and (ii) the FDM is able to identify 90% of genes with differential transcription when JSD* >0.28 and coverage >7. This represents higher sensitivity than Cufflinks (without annotations) and rDiff (MMD), which respectively identified 69 and 49% of the genes in this region as differential transcribed. Using annotations identifying the transcripts, Cufflinks was able to identify 86% of the genes in this region as differentially transcribed. Using experimental data consisting of four replicates each for two cancer cell lines (MCF7 and SUM102), FDM identified 1425 genes as significantly different in transcription. Subsequent study of the samples using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) of several differential transcription sites identified by FDM, confirmed significant differences at these sites.Availabilityhttp://csbio-linux001.cs.unc.edu/nextgen/software/FDM CONTACT: darshan@email.unc.eduSupplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

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A graph-based algorithm for RNA-seq data normalization.

Publications

A graph-based algorithm for RNA-seq data normalization.

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