Cited by 5,187Genomics and Chromatin DynamicsRNA Research and SplicingCancer-related molecular mechanisms research

Landscape of transcription in human cells

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Djebali, Sarah, Davis, Carrie A., Merkel, Angelika, Dobin, Alex, Lassmann, Timo, Mortazavi, Ali, Tanzer, Andrea, Lagarde, Julien +77 more·2012·Nature

Abstract

Eukaryotic cells make many types of primary and processed RNAs that are found either in specific subcellular compartments or throughout the cells. A complete catalogue of these RNAs is not yet available and their characteristic subcellular localizations are also poorly understood. Because RNA represents the direct output of the genetic information encoded by genomes and a significant proportion of a cell’s regulatory capabilities are focused on its synthesis, processing, transport, modification and translation, the generation of such a catalogue is crucial for understanding genome function. Here we report evidence that three-quarters of the human genome is capable of being transcribed, as well as observations about the range and levels of expression, localization, processing fates, regulatory regions and modifications of almost all currently annotated and thousands of previously unannotated RNAs. These observations, taken together, prompt a redefinition of the concept of a gene. A description is given of the ENCODE effort to provide a complete catalogue of primary and processed RNAs found either in specific subcellular compartments or throughout the cell, revealing that three-quarters of the human genome can be transcribed, and providing a wealth of information on the range and levels of expression, localization, processing fates and modifications of known and previously unannotated RNAs. These authors describe the ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements) effort to provide a complete catalogue of primary and processed RNAs found either in specific sub-cellular compartments or throughout the cell. They show that three-quarters of the human genome can be transcribed, and provide a wealth of information about the range and levels of expression, localization, processing fates and modifications of both known and previously unannotated RNAs. Collectively, these observations suggest that the current concept of a gene should be revisited.

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  • Almost all human multi-exon genes exhibit alternative splicing, and spliced human genes have on average over nine alternative transcribed forms.

    “Almost all human multi-exon genes exhibit alternative splicing, and spliced human genes have on average over nine alternative transcribed forms.”

    From A comprehensive assessment of RNA-seq accuracy, reproducibility and information content by the Sequencing Quality Control Consortium (2014) · cites this paper as [7]

    The “Patterns of splicing” section says genes tend to express many isoforms and that the number of expressed isoforms plateaus at about 10–12 per gene. It does not say that almost all multi-exon genes undergo alternative splicing or that spliced genes average more than nine alternative forms; a plateau is not an average. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The human genome now has >55,000 well-validated genes, and the majority of them are not protein coding.

    “The human genome now has >55,000 well-validated genes, and the majority of them are not protein coding.”

    From A comprehensive assessment of RNA-seq accuracy, reproducibility and information content by the Sequencing Quality Control Consortium (2014) · cites this paper as [7]

    In “Detection of annotated and novel transcripts” (page unavailable), the paper predicts 41,204 novel genes in addition to Gencode annotations and says most novel transcripts appear to lack protein-coding capacity. But it validates only a tested subset of approximately 3,000 transcript models and cautions that some unspliced transcripts could be artifacts. It does not establish that more than 55,000 genes are well validated or that a majority of those genes are non-protein-coding. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Efforts including ENCODE and others have reported that more than 75% of genomic DNA is at some point transcribed to primary unspliced RNA.

    “Efforts including ENCODE71 and others91, have reported that more than 75% of genomic DNA is at some point transcribed to primary (un-spliced) RNA.”
  • Most genes, in a given cell type, likely express only a single dominant transcript.

    “A recent result that has a potentially significant impact on interpretation of proteomic data is the finding that most genes, in a given cell-type, likely express only a single ‘dominant’ transcript70,71.”
  • RNA-seq provides a powerful tool to decipher global gene expression patterns far beyond the limitations of microarrays.

    “RNA deep-sequencing (RNA-seq) provides a powerful tool to decipher global gene expression patterns far beyond the limitations of microarrays, including an unprecedented capability to discover novel genes, alternative transcript variants, chimeric transcripts, and expressed sequence variants as well as allele-specific expression [8–12].”

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Authors
Djebali, S., Davis, C. A., Merkel, A., Dobin, A., Lassmann, T., Mortazavi, A., Tanzer, A., Lagarde, J., Lin, W., Schlesinger, F., Xue, C., Marinov, G. K., Khatun, J., Williams, B. A., Zaleski, C., Rozowsky, J., Röder, M., Kokocinski, F., Abdelhamid, R. F., Alioto, T., Antoshechkin, I., Baer, M. T., Bar, N. S., Batut, P., Bell, K., Bell, I., Chakrabortty, S., Chen, X., Chrast, J., Curado, J., Derrien, T., Drenkow, J., Dumais, E., Dumais, J., Duttagupta, R., Falconnet, E., Fastuca, M., Fejes-Toth, K., Ferreira, P., Foissac, S., Fullwood, M. J., Gao, H., Gonzalez, D., Gordon, A., Gunawardena, H., Howald, C., Jha, S., Johnson, R., Kapranov, P., King, B., Kingswood, C., Luo, O. J., Park, E., Persaud, K., Preall, J. B., Ribeca, P., Risk, B., Robyr, D., Sammeth, M., Schaffer, L., See, L.-H., Shahab, A., Skancke, J., Suzuki, A. M., Takahashi, H., Tilgner, H., Trout, D., Walters, N., Wang, H., Wrobel, J., Yu, Y., Ruan, X., Hayashizaki, Y., Harrow, J., Gerstein, M., Hubbard, T., Reymond, A., Antonarakis, S. E., Hannon, G., Giddings, M. C., Ruan, Y., Wold, B., Carninci, P., Guigó, R., & Gingeras, T. R.
Affiliations
  • Centre for Genomic Regulation (ES)
  • Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
  • Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (US)
  • California Institute of Technology (US)
  • Boise State University (US)
  • Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
  • Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
  • University of Geneva (CH)
  • Laboratoire de Génétique Cellulaire (FR)
Corresponding author
  • Guigó, Roderic
  • Gingeras, Thomas R.
Venue
Nature
Published
2012-09
Volume
489
Issue
7414
Pages
101-108
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W2166810745
Cited by
5,187
References
42
Citations by year
2026: 102 · 2025: 217 · 2024: 347 · 2023: 332 · 2022: 372 · 2021: 487 · 2020: 523 · 2019: 421 · 2018: 440 · 2017: 429 · 2016: 392 · 2015: 357 · 2014: 389 · 2013: 323 · 2012: 49
FWCI
143.23
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • RECERCAT (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • Scholar Works (Boise State University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • IRIS (submittedVersion)
  • CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Institutional Repository (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • Repositori digital de la UPF (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation
  • Wellcome Trust (062023)
  • Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
  • Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (26205, 127375, 249968)
  • National Institutes of Health (5u54hg004555-04, 5p30ca045508-35)
  • RIKEN
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (U54HG007004, R01HG003700, U54HG004576, U54-HG004555, U54HG004558, U01HG003147, RC2HG005591, U54HG004557, U24HG007234)
  • National Cancer Institute (P30-CA045508)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R37GM062534)
  • FP7 Ideas: European Research Council (249968)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › RNA Research and Splicing
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer-related molecular mechanisms research
Keywords
transcription, human genome, RNA processing, RNA localization, RNA modification, gene definition, ENCODE, RNA expression levels, genome annotation
MeSH terms
Alleles, Cell Line, DNA, Encyclopedias as Topic, Enhancer Elements, Genetic, Exons, Genes, Humans, Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid, Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid, RNA, RNA Splicing, Transcription, Genetic, Genome, Human, RNA Editing, Sequence Analysis, RNA, Protein Isoforms, Gene Expression Profiling, DNA, Intergenic, Genomics, Polyadenylation, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Transcriptome

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