Figure 1

Bioinformatics identification of NATs expressed from ASD-related loci. (a) Bioinformatics pipeline used for the identification of noncoding antisense RNAs. (b) Antisense noncoding RNAs to 103 ASD-related genes derived with our bioinformatics pipeline. Seventy-one noncoding antisense RNAs were identified overlapping 38 of 103 analyzed genes; thus, each sense gene has ~two antisense RNAs on average. (c) Distribution of noncoding antisense RNAs to ASD-related genes based on the type of sense-antisense overlap. The majority of the antisense RNAs overlaps an intron of the sense gene but do not have an overlap with the mature sense transcript (intronic overlap). Approximately equal numbers of antisense RNAs overlap an exon of the sense transcripts (exonic overlap) or gene promoters (promoter overlap); some of the antisense transcripts with intronic or exonic overlap have mixed classifications and can also overlap the promoter regions of their sense partners.