Full-length mRNA sequencing uncovers a widespread coupling between transcription and mRNA processing

Abstract

The multifaceted control of gene expression requires tight coordination of regulatory mechanisms at transcriptional and post-transcriptional level. Here, we studied the interdependence of transcription, splicing and polyadenylation events on single mRNA molecules by full-length mRNA sequencing. In MCF-7 breast cancer cells, we found 2,700 genes with interdependent alternative transcription, splicing and polyadenylation events, both in proximal and distant parts of mRNA molecules. The analysis of three human primary tissues revealed similar patterns of interdependency between transcription and mRNA processing events. We predict thousands of novel Open Reading Frames from the sequence of full-length mRNAs and obtained evidence for their translation by shotgun proteomics. The mapping database rescued 358 previously unassigned peptides and improved the assignment of others. By recognizing sample-specific amino-acid changes and novel splicing patterns, full-length mRNA sequencing improved proteogenomics analysis of MCF-7 cells. Our findings demonstrate that our understanding of transcriptome complexity is far from complete and provides a basis to reveal largely unresolved mechanisms that coordinate transcription and mRNA processing.