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Fig. 1 | BMC Medical Genomics

Fig. 1

From: Fusion transcript detection using spatial transcriptomics

Fig. 1

Expression of a fusion transcript. a Gene structure of the parental genes. The corrupted region between both genes leads to the fusion transcript. The fusion point is set to exon 4 of the 5′ gene and the intronic region between exons 1 and 2 for the 3′ gene. b Transcription of the fusion transcript is shown. Only fragments of the 5′ gene and fragments of the 3′ gene are transcribed. During transcription, helicase divides the two strands to allow RNA polymerase to act; both strands are subsequently combined. Topoisomerase avoids rotation and tension of the DNA strands during de-spiralisation. c Polyadenylation during post-transcriptional modification of the chimeric transcript and splicing to a mature mRNA. d Expression levels are defined by the promoter in the 5′ UTR of each gene. Normal transcription of the adjacent genes involves a different number of poly(A) tails on the parental genes (left). Transcription of the fusion transcript, however, results in an expression level based on the 5′ gene promoter and an elevated number of poly(A) tails attached to the 3′ UTR (right). e The difference in the number of poly(A) tails between normal, not fused (left barplot) and fused (right barplot) transcripts of the parental genes leads to the detection of the fusion transcript. If fused, the number of poly(A) tails on the 5′ gene becomes 0 and on the 3′ gene equal to the number of poly(A) tails on the normal 5′ gene transcript. f mRNA is translated and then folded into a protein. In case of a translated fusion transcript the folded protein is chimeric, i.e., a combination or section of fragments from the parental genes

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