A bioinformatic analysis identifies circadian expression of splicing factors and time-dependent alternative splicing events in the HD-MY-Z cell line

The circadian clock regulates key cellular processes and its dysregulation is associated to several pathologies including cancer. Although the transcriptional regulation of gene expression by the clock machinery is well described, the role of the clock in the regulation of post-transcriptional processes, including splicing, remains poorly understood. In the present work, we investigated the putative interplay between the circadian clock and splicing in a cancer context. For this, we applied a computational pipeline to identify oscillating genes and alternatively spliced transcripts in time-course high-throughput data sets from normal cells and tissues, and cancer cell lines. We investigated the temporal phenotype of clock-controlled genes and splicing factors, and evaluated their impact in alternative splice patterns in the Hodgkin Lymphoma cell line HD-MY-Z. Our data points to a connection between clock-controlled genes and splicing factors, which correlates with temporal alternative splicing in several genes in the HD-MY-Z cell line. These include the genes DPYD, SS18, VIPR1 and IRF4, involved in metabolism, cell cycle, apoptosis and proliferation. Our results highlight a role for the clock as a temporal regulator of alternative splicing, which may impact malignancy in this cellular model.