Statistical and Computational Studies on Alternative Splicing

The accumulating genome sequences and other high-throughput data have shed light on the extent and importance of alternative splicing in functional regulation. Alternative splicing dramatically increases the transcriptome and proteome diversity of higher organisms by producing multiple splice variants from different combinations of exons. It has an important role in many biological processes including nervous system development and programmed cell death. Many human diseases including cancer arise from defects in alternative splicing and its regulation. This chapter reviews statistical and computational methods on genome-wide alternative splicing studies.