Abstract

Background: Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is an emerging post-transcriptional mechanism for gene regulation that generates distinct isoforms of mRNA with different 3′ untranslated regions (3’UTR) lengths. APA plays an important role in different biological processes and dysregulation of APA leads to many human diseases. However, the functional consequences of APA events in the left ventricle (LV) failure in humans remain unexplored. Objective: To identify whether the 3′UTR length is modulated by APA in the LV failure in humans compared to healthy LV. Methods and Results: We used Poly(A)-ClickSeq RNA sequencing and PolyA-miner algorithm to measure the global patterns of APA in healthy and failing human LV specimens. We determined shortening versus lengthening of 3′UTRs based on the PolyA index, a metric unit that determines the length of 3′UTR. Based on these scores, we identified 129 genes with a significant shift of cleavage site usage in failing LV compared to healthy LV specimens. By examining polyadenylation events in these hearts, we identified disease-specific APA signatures in many genes. In addition, differential APA events in LV failure regulate many pathways important for the progression of LV failure. Finally, the regulator proteins of APA including cleavage and polyadenylation specificity factor (CPSF) 6 and 7, cleavage factor Im (CFIm) 25 and 59 have been regulated in LV failure compared to healthy LV specimens. Conclusions: Our results provide genome-wide, polyadenylation maps of the human heart and show that APA of mRNA is dynamic in the progression of LV failure in humans. Demonstrating that APA mediated 3’UTR length regulation provides the additional layer of gene expressions in LV failure.

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