Edge matching ESTs to assess alternative splicing

Edge matching ESTs to assess alternative splicing

Edge matching is a specialized visualization technique for genomics data that makes it easy to compare boundaries. Edge matching is especially useful for genes that undergo alternatives splicing. We can assess the degree to which individual splicing choices are made by looking at overlapping data from EST alignments or RNA-Seq data. The example below shows a visualization in IBG 6.6, which introduces a new iconography for gene models that uses arrows to indicate strand. Arrows pointing right mean the annotation is on the plus (forward) strand and arrows pointing left indicate minus strand annotations. Note how in this case that one of the gene models suggests an exon skipping event but only one overlapping EST supports it.