RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Pervasive allele-specific regulation on RNA decay in hybrid mice
JF Life Science Alliance
JO Life Sci. Alliance
FD Life Science Alliance LLC
SP e201800052
DO 10.26508/lsa.201800052
VO 1
IS 2
A1 Wei Sun
A1 Qingsong Gao
A1 Bernhard Schaefke
A1 Yuhui Hu
A1 Wei Chen
YR 2018
UL https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/1/2/e201800052.abstract
AB Cellular RNA abundance is determined by both RNA transcription and decay. Therefore, change in RNA abundance, which can drive phenotypic diversity between different species, could arise from genetic variants affecting either process. However, previous studies in the evolution of RNA expression have been largely focused on transcription. Here, to globally investigate the effects of cis-regulatory divergence on RNA decay in mammals for the first time, we quantified allele-specific differences in RNA decay rates (ASD) in an F1 hybrid mouse. Out of 8,815 genes with sufficient data, we identified 621 genes exhibiting significant cis-divergence. Systematic analysis of these genes revealed that the genetic variants affecting microRNA binding and RNA secondary structures contribute to the observed divergences. Finally, we demonstrated that although the divergences in RNA abundance were predominantly determined by allelic differences in RNA transcription, most genes with significant ASD did not exhibit significant difference in RNA abundance. For these genes, the apparently compensatory effect between the allelic differences in RNA transcription and ASD suggests that changes in RNA decay could serve as important means to stabilize RNA abundances during mammalian evolution.