Creating reference
The first step is to build a reference which will be used for the summarization of the sequence reads, and also downstream analysis (e.g. significant differential IR analysis). This can be carried out by
referencePrepare() function. The resulted reference data frame includes coordinates of introns and exons of the genes; They can be extracted from various sources i.e. UCSC, biomaRt or a user defined file (e.g. GFF3/GTF). The exons with overlapping genomic coordinates can be collapsed (if
collapseExons parameter is set as
TRUE) to avoid assigning reads mapping to any alternatively skipped exons to their overlapping introns. An example of the process is shown in
figure 2.
Here we build a reference data frame from a manually built GFF3 file that includes exonic coordinates of the gene RHBDD3.
# Load library quietly
suppressMessages(library("IntEREst"))
# Selecting rows related to RHBDD3 gene
tmpGen<-u12[u12[,"gene_name"]=="RHBDD3",]
# Extracting exons
tmpEx<-tmpGen[tmpGen[,"int_ex"]=="exon",]
# Building GFF3 file
exonDat<- cbind(tmpEx[,3], ".",
tmpEx[,c(7,4,5)], ".", tmpEx[,6], ".",paste("ID=exon",
tmpEx[,11], "; Parent=ENST00000413811", sep="") )
trDat<- c(tmpEx[1,3], ".", "mRNA", as.numeric(min(tmpEx[,4])),
as.numeric(max(tmpEx[,5])), ".", tmpEx[1,6], ".",
"ID=ENST00000413811")
outDir<- file.path(tempdir(),"tmpFolder")
dir.create(outDir)
outDir<- normalizePath(outDir)
gff3File<-paste(outDir, "gffFile.gff", sep="/")
cat("##gff-version 3\n",file=gff3File, append=FALSE)
cat(paste(paste(trDat, collapse="\t"),"\n", sep=""),
file=gff3File, append=TRUE)
write.table(exonDat, gff3File,
row.names=FALSE, col.names=FALSE,
sep='\t', quote=FALSE, append=TRUE)
# Extracting U12 introns info from 'u12' data
u12Int<-u12[u12$int_ex=="intron"&u12$int_type=="U12",]
# Building reference
#Since it is based on one gene only (that does not feature alternative splicing
#events) there is no difference if the collapseExons is set as TRUE or FALSE
testRef<- referencePrepare (sourceBuild="file",
filePath=gff3File, u12IntronsChr=u12Int[,"chr"],
u12IntronsBeg=u12Int[,"begin"],
u12IntronsEnd=u12Int[,"end"], collapseExons=TRUE,
fileFormat="gff3", annotateGeneIds=FALSE)
## Import genomic features from the file as a GRanges object ... OK
## Prepare the 'metadata' data frame ... OK
## Make the TxDb object ... OK
## chr begin end strand int_ex int_ex_num
## 1 chr22 29655841 29656226 - exon 1
## 2 chr22 29656227 29656314 - intron 2
## 3 chr22 29656315 29656602 - exon 3
## 4 chr22 29656603 29656690 - intron 4
## 5 chr22 29656691 29656853 - exon 5
## 6 chr22 29656854 29659823 - intron 6
## collapsed_transcripts_id collapsed_transcripts int_type
## 1 1 ENST00000413811 <NA>
## 2 1 ENST00000413811 U2
## 3 1 ENST00000413811 <NA>
## 4 1 ENST00000413811 U2
## 5 1 ENST00000413811 <NA>
## 6 1 ENST00000413811 U2
Intron retention, Inton spanning and exon-exon junction level estimation
The raw counts and normalized intron retention, intron spanning and exon-exon junction levels can be estimated using any of the two RNAseq read summarization functions, interest() and interest.sequential(). The interest() function is more robust since it distributes the reads in the .bam file over several computing cores and analyze the distributed data simultaneously. Note that regions in the genome with repetitive sequence elements may bias the mapping of the read sequences and the retention analysis. If you wish to exclude these regions from the analysis you can use the getRepeatTable() function, however We did not find repetitive DNA elements in particular biasing our results therefore we do not routinely use this function. As for instance, if you wish to exclude the coordinates in the genome housing Alu elements, you can run the reads summarization functions with the repeatsTableToFilter= getRepeatTable(repFamilyFil= "Alu") parameter setting. Also, to only consider the reads that map to intron-exon or exon-exon junctions set junctionReadsOnly= TRUE, however we recommend setting junctionReadsOnly= FLASE when measuring the intron retention levels (i.e. method=IntRet) and setting junctionReadsOnly= TRUE when measuring the exon-exon junction levels. The junctionReadsOnly' parameter does NOT apply to the intron-spanning levels estimation mode (i.e.method=IntSpan`).
The interest() and interest.sequential() read summarization functions write output text files, additionally they can return a summarizedExperiment object for every sample they analyze. As shown in the following test script we, however usually prevent the individual runs to return any objects (by setting the returnObj=FALSE); instead, after running the analysis for all samples we generate a single summarizedExperiment object that includes results of all analyzed samples. To build such object from the output text files the readInterestResults() function can be used. In the following scripts a bam file from a single MDS sample with mutated ZRSR2 is used which includes all the reads mapped to the gene RHBDD3 only. We run 3 analysis that results to the number of reads mapping to the introns of the gene RHBDD3, number of reads spanning the introns of the gene RHBDD3 and the number of junction reads mapping to the exons of gene RHBDD3. eventually a SummarizedExperiment object is built for each of the 3 analysis that includes the read counts together with the coordinates and annotations of the introns and exons. The same analysis can be run on multiple .bam files to obtain SummarizedExperiment objects that include results for all analyzed .bam files.
# Creating temp directory to store the results
outDir<- file.path(tempdir(),"interestFolder")
dir.create(outDir)
outDir<- normalizePath(outDir)
# Loading suitable bam file
bamF <- system.file("extdata", "small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3.bam",
package="IntEREst", mustWork=TRUE)
# Choosing reference for the gene RHBDD3
ref<-u12[u12[,"gene_name"]=="RHBDD3",]
# Intron retention analysis
# Reads mapping to inner introns are considered, hence
# junctionReadsOnly is FALSE
testInterest<- interest(
bamFileYieldSize=10000,
junctionReadsOnly=FALSE,
bamFile=bamF,
isPaired=TRUE,
isPairedDuplicate=FALSE,
isSingleReadDuplicate=NA,
reference=ref,
referenceGeneNames=ref[,"ens_gene_id"],
referenceIntronExon=ref[,"int_ex"],
repeatsTableToFilter=c(),
outFile=paste(outDir,
"intRetRes.tsv", sep="/"),
logFile=paste(outDir,
"log.txt", sep="/"),
method="IntRet",
clusterNo=1,
returnObj=FALSE,
scaleLength= TRUE,
scaleFragment= TRUE
)
## InERESt: Running bamPreprocess. Detailed log info are written in: /tmp/RtmpDD1IFF/interestFolder/log.txt
## Log info: Running interest in Parallel mode.
## InERESt: Running interestAnalyse.
## InERESt:interestAnalyse: Begins ...
## Analyzing paired reads, ID: SRR1691633.22391522
## Analyzing single reads, ID: SRR1691633.10002641
## InERESt:interestAnalyse: Read counting ends. Running time: 1.092432 secs
## InERESt: Running interestSummarise.
## IntERESt:interestSummarise: Begins ...
## IntERESt:interestSummarise: Normalizing intron retention read levels.
## InERESt: run ends. Full running time: 1.098291 secs
testIntRetObj<- readInterestResults(
resultFiles= paste(outDir,
"intRetRes.tsv", sep="/"),
sampleNames="small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3",
sampleAnnotation=data.frame(
type="ZRSR2mut",
test_ctrl="test"),
commonColumns=1:ncol(ref), freqCol=ncol(ref)+1,
scaledRetentionCol=ncol(ref)+2, scaleLength=TRUE, scaleFragment=TRUE,
reScale=TRUE, geneIdCol="ens_gene_id")
##
## Reading file 1 / 1 : /tmp/RtmpDD1IFF/interestFolder/intRetRes.tsv
# Intron Spanning analysis
# Reads mapping to inner introns are considered, hence
# junctionReadsOnly is FALSE
testInterest<- interest(
bamFileYieldSize=10000,
junctionReadsOnly=FALSE,
bamFile=bamF,
isPaired=TRUE,
isPairedDuplicate=FALSE,
isSingleReadDuplicate=NA,
reference=ref,
referenceGeneNames=ref[,"ens_gene_id"],
referenceIntronExon=ref[,"int_ex"],
repeatsTableToFilter=c(),
outFile=paste(outDir,
"intSpanRes.tsv", sep="/"),
logFile=paste(outDir,
"log.txt", sep="/"),
method="IntSpan",
clusterNo=1,
returnObj=FALSE,
scaleLength= TRUE,
scaleFragment= TRUE
)
## InERESt: Running bamPreprocess. Detailed log info are written in: /tmp/RtmpDD1IFF/interestFolder/log.txt
## Log info: Running interest in Parallel mode.
## InERESt: Running interestAnalyse.
## InERESt:interestAnalyse: Begins ...
## Analyzing paired reads, ID: SRR1691633.22391522
## Analyzing single reads, ID: SRR1691633.10002641
## InERESt:interestAnalyse: Read counting ends. Running time: 0.6864495 secs
## InERESt: Running interestSummarise.
## IntERESt:interestSummarise: Begins ...
## IntERESt:interestSummarise: Normalizing intron retention read levels.
## InERESt: run ends. Full running time: 0.689774 secs
testIntSpanObj<- readInterestResults(
resultFiles= paste(outDir,
"intSpanRes.tsv", sep="/"),
sampleNames="small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3",
sampleAnnotation=data.frame(
type="ZRSR2mut",
test_ctrl="test"),
commonColumns=1:ncol(ref), freqCol=ncol(ref)+1,
scaledRetentionCol=ncol(ref)+2, scaleLength=TRUE, scaleFragment=TRUE,
reScale=TRUE, geneIdCol="ens_gene_id")
##
## Reading file 1 / 1 : /tmp/RtmpDD1IFF/interestFolder/intSpanRes.tsv
# Exon-exon junction analysis
# Reads mapping to inner exons are NOT considered, hence
# junctionReadsOnly is TRUE
testInterest<- interest(
bamFileYieldSize=10000,
junctionReadsOnly=TRUE,
bamFile=bamF,
isPaired=TRUE,
isPairedDuplicate=FALSE,
isSingleReadDuplicate=NA,
reference=ref,
referenceGeneNames=ref[,"ens_gene_id"],
referenceIntronExon=ref[,"int_ex"],
repeatsTableToFilter=c(),
outFile=paste(outDir,
"exExRes.tsv", sep="/"),
logFile=paste(outDir,
"log.txt", sep="/"),
method="ExEx",
clusterNo=1,
returnObj=FALSE,
scaleLength= TRUE,
scaleFragment= TRUE
)
## InERESt: Running bamPreprocess. Detailed log info are written in: /tmp/RtmpDD1IFF/interestFolder/log.txt
## Log info: Running interest in Parallel mode.
## InERESt: Running interestAnalyse.
## InERESt:interestAnalyse: Begins ...
## Analyzing paired reads, ID: SRR1691633.22391522
## Analyzing single reads, ID: SRR1691633.10002641
## InERESt:interestAnalyse: Read counting ends. Running time: 0.9021626 secs
## InERESt: Running interestSummarise.
## IntERESt:interestSummarise: Begins ...
## IntERESt:interestSummarise: Normalizing exon-exon junction read levels.
## InERESt: run ends. Full running time: 0.9060447 secs
testExExObj<- readInterestResults(
resultFiles= paste(outDir,
"exExRes.tsv", sep="/"),
sampleNames="small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3",
sampleAnnotation=data.frame(
type="ZRSR2mut",
test_ctrl="test"),
commonColumns=1:ncol(ref), freqCol=ncol(ref)+1,
scaledRetentionCol=ncol(ref)+2, scaleLength=TRUE, scaleFragment=TRUE,
reScale=TRUE, geneIdCol="ens_gene_id")
##
## Reading file 1 / 1 : /tmp/RtmpDD1IFF/interestFolder/exExRes.tsv
## class: SummarizedExperiment
## dim: 15 1
## metadata(2): scaleFragment scaleLength
## assays(2): counts scaledRetention
## rownames: NULL
## rowData names(16): id int_ex_id ... int_type int_subtype
## colnames(1): small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3
## colData names(3): resultFiles type test_ctrl
## class: SummarizedExperiment
## dim: 15 1
## metadata(2): scaleFragment scaleLength
## assays(2): counts scaledRetention
## rownames: NULL
## rowData names(16): id int_ex_id ... int_type int_subtype
## colnames(1): small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3
## colData names(3): resultFiles type test_ctrl
## class: SummarizedExperiment
## dim: 15 1
## metadata(2): scaleFragment scaleLength
## assays(2): counts scaledRetention
## rownames: NULL
## rowData names(16): id int_ex_id ... int_type int_subtype
## colnames(1): small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3
## colData names(3): resultFiles type test_ctrl
## small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3
## [1,] 0
## [2,] 11
## [3,] 0
## [4,] 11
## [5,] 0
## [6,] 180
## small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3
## [1,] 0
## [2,] 39
## [3,] 0
## [4,] 25
## [5,] 0
## [6,] 5
## small_test_SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut_RHBDD3
## [1,] 39
## [2,] 0
## [3,] 64
## [4,] 0
## [5,] 23
## [6,] 0
Using the test data mdsChr22Obj
As a demo we ran the IntEREst pipeline on 16 .bam files that each includes reads mapped to U12 genes (i.e. genes with at least one U12-type intron) located in chromosome 22. These bam files were results of mapping RNAseq data from bone-marrow samples published by Madan et al. [-@pmid25586593] to the Human genome (hg19). The studied samples were extracted from 16 individuals; out of which 8 were diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and featured ZRSR2 mutation, 4 were diagnosed with MDS but lacked the mutation (referred to as ZRSR2 wild-type MDS samples) and 4 were healthy individuals.
The data is accessible through GEO with the accession number GSE63816 and the scripts that we ran to map the RNAseq data, modify the bam files, extract the reads mapped to U12 genes in chr22 and build mdsChr22Obj, mdsChr22ExObj and mdsChr22RefIntRetSpObj objects are available in the scripts folder of the IntEREst package (See the readme.txt file in the folder for more information). You can get its full path using this script in R: system.file("scripts","readme.txt", package="IntEREst").
The mdsChr22Obj object is a summarizedExperiment object that includes information regarding levels of intron-mapping reads in the U12 genes located on the Chromosome 22, across all the 16 MDS samples. The mdsChr22ExObj object contain the levels of exon-exon junction mapping reads and the mdsChr22RefIntRetSpObj include the levels of intron-spanning reads. Each object include two assays: counts and scaledRetention. Both can be accessed using functions with the same names: counts() and scaledRetention(). The former (counts) returns a data frame which includes the read counts of each intron/exon in each sample, and the latter (scaledRetention) returns a data frame with similar dimensions that includes the FPKM normalized read counts. The result objects also include intron/exon and sample annotations that can be retrieved using rowData() and colData() functions.
## class: SummarizedExperiment
## dim: 819 16
## metadata(2): scaleFragment scaleLength
## assays(2): counts scaledRetention
## rownames: NULL
## rowData names(10): chr begin ... collapsed_gene_id intron_type
## colnames(16): SRR1691633 SRR1691634 ... SRR1691647 SRR1691648
## colData names(3): resultFiles type test_ctrl
## class: SummarizedExperiment
## dim: 494 16
## metadata(2): scaleFragment scaleLength
## assays(2): counts scaledRetention
## rownames: NULL
## rowData names(5): chr begin end transcripts_id int_ex
## colnames(16): SRR1691633 SRR1691634 ... SRR1691647 SRR1691648
## colData names(3): resultFiles type test_ctrl
## SRR1691633 SRR1691634 SRR1691635 SRR1691636 SRR1691637 SRR1691638
## [1,] 0 0 0 0 0 0
## [2,] 1 2 1 1 1 1
## [3,] 0 0 0 0 0 0
## [4,] 21 35 45 44 22 21
## [5,] 0 0 0 0 0 0
## [6,] 63 98 128 86 67 98
## SRR1691639 SRR1691640 SRR1691641 SRR1691642 SRR1691643 SRR1691644
## [1,] 0 0 0 0 0 0
## [2,] 0 2 1 3 2 2
## [3,] 0 0 0 0 0 0
## [4,] 27 20 89 40 28 30
## [5,] 0 0 0 0 0 0
## [6,] 84 33 161 90 24 49
## SRR1691645 SRR1691646 SRR1691647 SRR1691648
## [1,] 0 0 0 0
## [2,] 3 1 6 1
## [3,] 0 0 0 0
## [4,] 14 14 71 14
## [5,] 0 0 0 0
## [6,] 35 33 112 37
## SRR1691633 SRR1691634 SRR1691635 SRR1691636 SRR1691637 SRR1691638
## [1,] 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.00 0.000
## [2,] 4675.344 9547.815 2617.253 2708.442 7832.08 3481.506
## [3,] 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.00 0.000
## [4,] 8125.426 13827.871 9747.011 9862.463 14259.79 6050.618
## [5,] 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.00 0.000
## [6,] 30339.572 48189.833 34507.300 23992.376 54051.44 35143.788
## SRR1691639 SRR1691640 SRR1691641 SRR1691642 SRR1691643 SRR1691644
## [1,] 0.000 0.00 0.000 0.00 0.00 0.00
## [2,] 0.000 18404.00 3353.724 18382.35 25100.40 19113.15
## [3,] 0.000 0.00 0.000 0.00 0.00 0.00
## [4,] 8336.627 15230.90 24701.912 20283.98 29081.84 23726.67
## [5,] 0.000 0.00 0.000 0.00 0.00 0.00
## [6,] 32281.073 31278.91 55617.122 56803.84 31025.39 48234.04
## SRR1691645 SRR1691646 SRR1691647 SRR1691648
## [1,] 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
## [2,] 37202.38 15318.63 36507.01 22353.36
## [3,] 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
## [4,] 14367.82 17748.48 35751.69 25899.07
## [5,] 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
## [6,] 44706.72 52070.18 70193.73 85192.21
## DataFrame with 6 rows and 10 columns
## chr begin end strand int_ex int_ex_num
## <character> <integer> <integer> <character> <character> <integer>
## 1 chr22 17618410 17619247 * exon 1
## 2 chr22 17619248 17619439 * intron 2
## 3 chr22 17619440 17619628 * exon 3
## 4 chr22 17619629 17621948 * intron 4
## 5 chr22 17621949 17622123 * exon 5
## 6 chr22 17622124 17623987 * intron 6
## collapsed_transcripts_id collapsed_transcripts
## <integer> <character>
## 1 21037 uc002zmi.4,uc011agh.3,uc002zmf.3,uc002zmh.3
## 2 21037 uc002zmi.4,uc011agh.3,uc002zmf.3,uc002zmh.3
## 3 21037 uc002zmi.4,uc011agh.3,uc002zmf.3,uc002zmh.3
## 4 21037 uc002zmi.4,uc011agh.3,uc002zmf.3,uc002zmh.3
## 5 21037 uc002zmi.4,uc011agh.3,uc002zmf.3,uc002zmh.3
## 6 21037 uc002zmi.4,uc011agh.3,uc002zmf.3,uc002zmh.3
## collapsed_gene_id intron_type
## <character> <factor>
## 1 100130717,27440 NA
## 2 100130717,27440 U2
## 3 100130717,27440 NA
## 4 100130717,27440 U2
## 5 100130717,27440 NA
## 6 100130717,27440 U2
## DataFrame with 6 rows and 3 columns
## resultFiles type test_ctrl
## <character> <factor> <factor>
## SRR1691633 ./SRR1691633_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## SRR1691634 ./SRR1691634_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## SRR1691635 ./SRR1691635_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## SRR1691636 ./SRR1691636_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## SRR1691637 ./SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## SRR1691638 ./SRR1691638_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
It is possible to plot() the object to check the distribution of the intron retention levels. The following scripts plot the average retention of all introns across the 3 sample types: ZRSR2 mutated MDS, ZRSR2 wild type MDS and healthy. The lowerPlot=TRUE and upperPlot=TRUE parameter settings ensures that both, the upper and lower triangle of the grid are plotted.
The following script plots the average retention of the U12 introns across the 3 sample types: ZRSR2 mutated MDS, ZRSR2 MDS wild type and healthy. By default the upper triangle of the grid is plotted only (lowerPlot=FALSE).
Comparing intron retention levels across various samples
IntEREst also provides various tools to compare the retention levels of the introns or exon junction levels across various samples. Initially, we extract the significantly higher and lower retained introns by using exactTestInterest() function which employs the exactTest() function from the edgeR package, i.e. an exact test for differences between two groups of negative-binomial counts. Note that exactTestInterest() makes comparison between a pair of sample types only (e.g. test vs ctrl).
## DataFrame with 16 rows and 3 columns
## resultFiles type test_ctrl
## <character> <factor> <factor>
## SRR1691633 ./SRR1691633_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## SRR1691634 ./SRR1691634_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## SRR1691635 ./SRR1691635_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## SRR1691636 ./SRR1691636_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## SRR1691637 ./SRR1691637_ZRSR2Mut/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2mut test
## ... ... ... ...
## SRR1691644 ./SRR1691644_WT/interestRes.tsv ZRSR2wt ctrl
## SRR1691645 ./SRR1691645_Normal/interestRes.tsv HEALTHY ctrl
## SRR1691646 ./SRR1691646_Normal/interestRes.tsv HEALTHY ctrl
## SRR1691647 ./SRR1691647_Normal/interestRes.tsv HEALTHY ctrl
## SRR1691648 ./SRR1691648_Normal/interestRes.tsv HEALTHY ctrl
## Design matrix not provided. Switch to the classic mode.
## [1] 16
## [1] 50
## [1] 1.827676
As shown in the previous analysis ~50% of U12-type introns (of genes on Chr22) are significantly more retained (i.e. stabilized) in the ZRSR2 mutated samples comparing to the other samples, whereas same comparison shows that only ~1% of the U2-type introns are significantly more retained. For more complex experiments such as comparing samples based on a user defined design matrix other differential expression analysis functions from edgeR package, e.g. Linear Model (GLM) functions, have also been implemented in IntEREst; glmInterest() performs GLM likelihood ratio test, qlfInterest() runs quasi likelihood F-test, and treatInterest() runs fold-change threshold test on the retention levels of the introns/exons. DESeq2 and DEXSeq based functions (deseqInterest() and DEXSeqIntEREst()) are also available in the package. Using the QLF edgeR based method the following commands can be used to extract the data for introns/exons that their retention levels vary significantly across all sample types: ZRSR2 mutation, ZRSR2 wild type, and healthy.
## [1] ZRSR2mut ZRSR2mut ZRSR2mut ZRSR2mut ZRSR2mut ZRSR2mut ZRSR2mut
## [8] ZRSR2mut ZRSR2wt ZRSR2wt ZRSR2wt ZRSR2wt HEALTHY HEALTHY
## [15] HEALTHY HEALTHY
## Levels: HEALTHY ZRSR2mut ZRSR2wt
## DataFrame with 5 rows and 5 columns
## chr begin end strand int_ex
## <character> <integer> <integer> <character> <character>
## 1 chr22 17626008 17629337 * intron
## 2 chr22 17629451 17630431 * intron
## 3 chr22 17630636 17640015 * intron
## 4 chr22 19493005 19494908 + intron
## 5 chr22 19495041 19495288 + intron
Next, to better illustrate the differences in the retention levels of different types of introns across the studied samples, we first use the bopxplot() method to illustrate the retention levels of all U12-type and U2-type introns in various sample types, and then we use the u12BoxplotNb() function to compare the retention of the U12 introns to their up- and down-stream U2-type introns.
# boxplot U12 and U2-type introns
par(mar=c(7,4,2,1))
u12Boxplot(mdsChr22Obj, sampleAnnoCol="type",
intExCol="int_ex", intTypeCol="intron_type", intronExon="intron",
col=rep(c("orange", "yellow"),3) , lasNames=3,
outline=FALSE, ylab="FPKM", cex.axis=0.8)
# boxplot U12-type intron and its up/downstream U2-type introns
par(mar=c(2,4,1,1))
u12BoxplotNb(mdsChr22Obj, sampleAnnoCol="type", lasNames=1,
intExCol="int_ex", intTypeCol="intron_type", intronExon="intron",
boxplotNames=c(), outline=FALSE, plotLegend=TRUE,
geneIdCol="collapsed_transcripts_id", xLegend="topleft",
col=c("pink", "lightblue", "lightyellow"), ylim=c(0,1e+06),
ylab="FPKM", cex.axis=0.8)
The boxplot clearly shows the increase retention of U12-type introns comparing to all the U2 introns (figure 5) and in particular comparing to the U2-type introns located on the up- or down-stream of the U12-type introns (figure 6). It is also clear that the elevated level of intron retention with U12-type introns is exacerbated in the ZRSR2 mutated samples comparing to the other studied samples. In order to better illustrate the stabilization of the transcripts with U12-type introns comparing to the ones that lack U12-type introns, we plot the density of the log fold-change of the retention (ZRSR2 mutated v.s. other samples) of U12-type introns and compare it to the log fold-change values for randomly selected U2-type introns, and U2-type introns up- or down-stream the U12-type introns.
u12DensityPlotIntron(mdsChr22Obj,
type= c("U12", "U2Up", "U2Dn", "U2UpDn", "U2Rand"),
fcType= "edgeR", sampleAnnoCol="test_ctrl",
sampleAnnotation=c("ctrl","test"), intExCol="int_ex",
intTypeCol="intron_type", strandCol= "strand",
geneIdCol= "collapsed_transcripts_id", naUnstrand=FALSE, col=c(2,3,4,5,6),
lty=c(1,2,3,4,5), lwd=1, plotLegend=TRUE, cexLegend=0.7,
xLegend="topright", yLegend=NULL, legend=c(), randomSeed=10,
ylim=c(0,0.6), xlab=expression("log"[2]*" fold change FPKM"))
## Design matrix not provided. Switch to the classic mode.
## Design matrix not provided. Switch to the classic mode.
## [1] 0
## [1] 1.008306
As shown in figure 7 (and computed after the plot), when comparing the ZRSR2 mutated samples vs the other samples, for all U2-type introns the most frequent log fold-change (median) is ~0 whereas this value for the U12-type introns is noticeably higher (~1.01). It is also possible to run a statistical test to see if the log fold-changes of U12-type introns (ZRSR2 mutated samples vs other samples) are significantly higher than the log fold-changes of U2-type introns. For this purpose we use the jonckheere.test() function, i.e. Jonckheere-Terpstra ordered alternative hypothesis test, from the Clinfun package.
##
## Jonckheere-Terpstra test
##
## data:
## JT = 11209, p-value = 0.001
## alternative hypothesis: increasing
The result of the Jonckheere-Terpstra test with 1000 permutation runs shows that when comparing the samples that lack the ZRSR2 mutation to the the ZRSR2 mutated samples, the null hypothesis that the log fold-changes of the retentions of U12-type and U2-type introns are equally distributed was rejected with p-value 0.001, while the alternative being that the values in the U12-type introns are higher compared to the U2-type.
