Identification of novel alternative transcripts of the human Ribonuclease κ (RNASEK) gene using 3' RACE and high-throughput sequencing approaches.

The human RNASEK gene encodes Ribonuclease κ, an endoribonuclease that belongs to a highly conserved protein family of metazoans. Recent evidence suggests that the mRNA levels of the RNASEK gene possess biomarker attributes in patients with prostate cancer. In the present study, we used 3' RACE and next-generation sequencing (NGS) to detect and identify novel RNASEK transcripts. Computational analysis of the NGS data revealed new alternative splicing events that support the existence of novel RNASEK alternative transcripts. As a result, eight RNASEK splice variants were discovered and their expression profile was analyzed with the use of nested PCR in a wide panel of human cell lines, originating from several cancerous and/or normal human tissues. Based on in silico analysis, six of the eight novel RNASEK transcripts are predicted to encode new protein isoforms, while the remaining two splice variants could be considered as nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) candidates.

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