The Landscape Of Human Mutually Exclusive Splicing

Abstract

Mutually exclusive splicing of exons is a mechanism of functional gene and protein diversification with pivotal roles in organismal development and diseases such as Timothy syndrome, cardiomyopathy and cancer in humans. In order to obtain a first genome-wide estimate of the extent and biological role of mutually exclusive splicing in humans we predicted and subsequently validated mutually exclusive exons (MXEs) using 515 publically available RNA-seq datasets. Here, we provide evidence for the expression of over 855 MXEs, 42% of which represent novel exons, increasing the annotated human mutually exclusive exome more than five-fold. The data provides strong evidence for the existence of large and multi-cluster MXEs in higher vertebrates and offers new insights into MXE splicing mechanics and evolution. Finally, MXEs are significantly enriched in pathogenic mutations and their spatio-temporal expression predicts human disease pathology.