Gene knockdown analysis of Transcription Elongation Regulator 1 (TCERG1) by Exon array

Transcription and splicing of RNA are key processes in gene expression regulation. It is widely accepted that both processes are physically and functionally coupled and that this coupling might be an important aspect of the regulation of alternative splicing, which contributes significantly to the diversity of cell and tissue-specific protein expression profiles. TCERG1 is a human nuclear protein that has been implicated in transcriptional elongation and alternative  splicing and hence in the coupling between transcription and splicing.

My project studies the biological function of TCERG1 using the Exon array technology from Affymetrix, which allows gene-level and exon-level expression profiling on the whole-genome scale using a single array. To identify target genes of TCERG1, we used human cells knocked-down for TCERG1 by siRNA and these exon-specific microarrays. The analysis of the array revealed genes with transcript-level and exon-level changes, many of which have been validated by RT-PCR. The array also revealed many different types of alternative exon usage. Finally, we have gathered data from the biological processes significantly enriched with transcript- and exon-level targets. My current research subject involves the study of the role of TCERG1 in some of these biological processes.