Abstract 1796: Analysis of TCGA RNASeq data using SpliceSeq provides a survey of alternative splicing in cancer.

Abstract The vast majority of human genes express more than one transcript isoform, and aberrant splicing patterns or changes in isoform expression ratios can lead to disease, notably cancer. Next generation sequencing platforms deliver the finest resolution yet of the transcriptome, and the wealth of sequencing data produced by TCGA provides an excellent basis for a broad study of alternative splicing in cancer. We have developed an interactive, exceptionally user-friendly tool, SpliceSeq, for investigation of alternative splicing in RNASeq data. The program is a follow-up to our SpliceCenter package (http://projects.insilico.us/SpliceCenter/SpliceOverview.jsp), which provides tools for use by the bench biologist in assessing experimental observations that may result from splice variation. Our results from SpliceSeq for TCGA RNASeq data from several cancer types will be presented. We identify pervasive changes in splicing patterns across different cancer types by comparing tumor vs. normal and clinical subgroups (e.g. tumor stage, hyper-mutator status, and MSI designation). Interesting observations include striking splice variations in APP, the amyloid beta precursor protein, and in PKM, which is centrally involved in the balance between oxidative and glycolytic metabolism in tumors. SpliceSeq is freely available at http://bioinformatics.mdanderson.org/main/SpliceSeq:Overview. 1. Ryan MC, Cleland J, Kim R, Wong WC, Weinstein JN. SpliceSeq: A Resource for Analysis and Visualization of RNA-Seq Data on Alternative Splicing and Its Functional Impacts. Bioinformatics, 10.1093, 2012. 2. Ryan MC, Zeeberg BR, Caplen NJ, Cleland JA, Kahn AB, Liu H, and Weinstein JN. SpliceCenter: a suite of web-based bioinformatic applications for evaluating the impact of alternative splicing on RT-PCR, RNAi, microarray, and peptide-based studies. BMC Bioinformatics 9:313, 2008. 3. Kahn AB, Ryan MC, Liu H, Zeeberg BR, Jamison DC, Weinstein JN. SpliceMiner: a high-throughput database implementation of the NCBI Evidence Viewer for microarray splice variant analysis. BMC Bioinformatics 8:752, 2006. Supported by NCI Grant No. U24CA143883. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent official views of NCI or NIH. Also supported in part by a gift from the Mary K. Chapman Foundation and a grant from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation honoring Lorraine Dell. Citation Format: Michael C. Ryan, John N. Weinstein. Analysis of TCGA RNASeq data using SpliceSeq provides a survey of alternative splicing in cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1796. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1796