Iso-Seq Sequencing and the Chicken Genome Annotation

Until recently the chicken and other avian research communities relied on transcriptome annotations that over simplified many transcriptional complexities. These include alternative transcription events and non-coding RNA classes. Using Iso-Seq sequencing, we have discovered a transcriptional landscape that is far more diverse than previously annotated. We have identified more than 60k transcripts and 29k genes. Among these transcripts, we have predicted thousands of long non-coding RNA and non-sense mediated decay transcripts as well as other biotypes. These models have provided insight into similarities between the transcriptional complexity of birds and mammals which will aide future comparative transcriptomic research and help functionally annotate other species.

These novel transcripts can be incorporated into public annotations to benefit the entire research community. We have worked with Ensembl to integrate this data into the version 86 annotation of the Gallus Gallus 5 genome assembly. With this methodology, researchers could rapidly create a complete transcriptome annotation for chicken and other vertebrate species.