Transcription start site profiling of 15 anatomical regions of the Macaca mulatta central nervous system

Rhesus macaque was the second non-human primate whose genome has been fully sequenced and is one of the most used model organisms to study human biology and disease, thanks to the close evolutionary relationship between the two species. But compared to human, where several previously unknown RNAs have been uncovered, the macaque transcriptome is less studied. Publicly available RNA expression resources for macaque are limited, even for brain, which is highly relevant to study human cognitive abilities. In an effort to complement those resources, FANTOM5 profiled 15 distinct anatomical regions of the aged macaque central nervous system using Cap Analysis of Gene Expression, a high-resolution, annotation-independent technology that allows monitoring of transcription initiation events with high accuracy. We identified 25,869 CAGE peaks, representing bona fide promoters. For each peak we provide detailed annotation, expanding the landscape of ‘known’ macaque genes, and we show concrete examples on how to use the resulting data. We believe this data represents a useful resource to understand the central nervous system in macaque.