Feiyang Xue: Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Yuqin Yan: Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Weiwei Jin: Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Haotian Zhu: Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Yanbo Yang: Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Zhanhui Yu: Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Xuewen Xu: Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Education & College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China. xuewen_xu@mail.hzau.edu.cn. ORCID
Jing Gong: Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China. gong.jing@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
Xiaohui Niu: Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China. niuxiaoh@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
Alternative promoter (AP) events, as a major pre-transcriptional mechanism, can initiate different transcription start sites to generate distinct mRNA isoforms and regulate their expression. At present, hundreds of thousands of APs have been identified across human tissues, and a considerable number of APs have been demonstrated to be associated with complex traits and diseases. Recent researches have also proven important effects of APs on animals. However, the landscape of APs in animals has not been fully recognized. In this study, 102,349 AP profiles from 23,077 samples across 12 species were systematically characterized. We further identified tissue-specific APs and investigated trait-related promoters among various species. In addition, we analyzed the associations between APs and enhancer RNAs (eRNA)/transcription factors (TF) as a means of identifying potential regulatory factors. Integrating these findings, we finally developed Animal-APdb, a database for the searching, browsing, and downloading of information related to Animal APs. Animal-APdb is expected to serve as a valuable resource for exploring the functions and mechanisms of APs in animals.
