CFIm25 links alternative polyadenylation to glioblastoma tumour suppression

Purpose: To identify all of the APA targets of CFIm25 on a global scale and develop an algorithm that can idenitify APA events from standard RNA-seq data Methods: RNA from HeLa cells treated with control siRNA and CFIm25 siRNA were subject to RNA-Seq. Using a custom-designed algorithm to mine RNA-seq data for novel APA events regulated by CFIm25. Results: We identified over 1,400 genes with shortened 3’UTRs after CFIm25 knockdown. Importantly, we show that as a consequence of APA, many of these mRNAs have greatly enhanced protein expression due to the loss of destabilizing features within the 3’UTR. Conclusions: Our study underscored the critical function of the CFIm complex members in governing APA and establish a previously unknown link between APA and metabolic pathways important for tumor progression. Hela cell line mRNA profiles of control treated and CFIm25 Knockdown were generated by RNA-Seq using Illumina GAIIx.