LNCRNA expression landscape and specificity between brain regions

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcribed into low potential protein coding RNA molecules, which account for over 70% of mammalian transcriptional products. The role of lncRNAs and their expression is still largely unknown, and the subject of recent investigations. Here, we used bulk RNA sequencing data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project to reveal the occurrence and identify the specificity of lncRNAs in 13 brain regions (1000 samples). We observed that these highly specific lncRNA were co-expressed with previously known mRNA markers for the 13 study regions of the brain. Further investigation revealed that splicing could influence the divergent biogenesis and enrichment of specific lncRNA alleles in different brain regions. Overall, we demonstrate the use of lncRNA as an independent tool for deconvolving brain regions and further highlights its use for cell-type identification from bulk transcriptome data.