Alternative polyadenylation coordinates embryonic development, sexual dimorphism and longitudinal growth in Xenopus tropicalis.

Authors: Zhou, Xiang and Zhang, Yangzi and Michal, Jennifer J and Qu, Lujiang and Zhang, Shuwen and Wildung, Mark R and Du, Weiwei and Pouchnik, Derek J and Zhao, Hui and Xia, Yin and Shi, Honghua and Ji, Guoli and Davis, Jon F and Smith, Gary D and Griswold, Michael D and Harland, Richard M and Jiang, Zhihua

RNA alternative polyadenylation contributes to the complexity of information transfer from genome to phenome, thus amplifying gene function. Here, we report the first X. tropicalis resource with 127,914 alternative polyadenylation (APA) sites derived from embryos and adults. Overall, APA networks play central roles in coordinating the maternal-zygotic transition (MZT) in embryos, sexual dimorphism in adults and longitudinal growth from embryos to adults. APA sites coordinate reprogramming in embryos before the MZT, but developmental events after the MZT due to zygotic genome activation. The APA transcriptomes of young adults are more variable than growing adults and male frog APA transcriptomes are more divergent than females. The APA profiles of young females were similar to embryos before the MZT. Enriched pathways in developing embryos were distinct across the MZT and noticeably segregated from adults. Briefly, our results suggest that the minimal functional units in genomes are alternative transcripts as opposed to genes.

Journal: Cellular and molecular life sciences
DOI: 10.1007/s00018-019-03036-1
Year: 2019

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