Detection of RNA-editing sites in human RNA-sequencing data

Supervisors

Yang Li

Introduction

RNA editing is a molecular process, which generates the diversity and plasticity of cellular RNA signatures. RNA editing in mRNAs alters the amino acid sequences of the encoded proteins. Although there are extensive documentations of edited sites, it is not completely clear the extent and consequences of RNA editing in humans. The development and improvement of technique permits the fast collection of huge amount of transcriptomic data ready to be bioinformatic analysis. When the information on the whole genome and transcriptome sequences from the same individual are available, it is possible to reliably identify the RNA-editing sites, by excluding single base mutations only on RNA due to the action of ADAR protein family

Project 6

In this project, you will firstly run two established bioinformatics pipelines [RNAeditor and RED] for RNA editing detection using RNA-seq data. Then you will compare the detected RNA-editing sites with the public editing databases [Adar and Radar] to determine which pipelines performs best. Finally, you will try to integrate the editomes with other resources of data, e.g. ENCODE towards a better understanding of the regulation of RNA editing process.