Menu
April 21, 2020

Variant Phasing and Haplotypic Expression from Single-molecule Long-read Sequencing in Maize

Authors: Wang, Bo and Tseng, Elizabeth and Baybayan, Primo and Eng, Kevin and Regulski, Michael and Jiao, Yinping and Wang, Liya and Olson, Andrew and Chougule, Kapeel and Van Buren, Peter and Ware, Doreen

Haplotype phasing of genetic variants is important for interpretation of the maize genome, population genetic analysis, and functional genomic analysis of allelic activity. Accordingly, accurate methods for phasing full-length isoforms are essential for functional genomics study. In this study, we performed an isoform-level phasing study in maize, using two inbred lines and their reciprocal crosses, based on single-molecule full-length cDNA sequencing. To phase and analyze full-length transcripts between hybrids and parents, we developed a tool called IsoPhase. Using this tool, we validated the majority of SNPs called against matching short read data and identified cases of allele-specific, gene-level, and isoform-level expression. Our results revealed that maize parental and hybrid lines exhibit different splicing activities. After phasing 6,847 genes in two reciprocal hybrids using embryo, endosperm and root tissues, we annotated the SNPs and identified large-effect genes. In addition, based on single-molecule sequencing, we identified parent-of-origin isoforms in maize hybrids, different novel isoforms between maize parent and hybrid lines, and imprinted genes from different tissues. Finally, we characterized variation in cis- and trans-regulatory effects. Our study provides measures of haplotypic expression that could increase power and accuracy in studies of allelic expression.

Journal: BioRxiv
DOI: 10.1101/654533
Year: 2019

Read publication

Talk with an expert

If you have a question, need to check the status of an order, or are interested in purchasing an instrument, we're here to help.