DBATE: Database of alternative transcripts expression

The use of high-throughput RNA sequencing technology (RNA-seq) allows whole transcriptome analysis, providing anunbiased and unabridged view of alternative transcript expression. Coupling splicing variant-specific expression with itsfunctional inference is still an open and difficult issue for which we created the DataBase of Alternative TranscriptsExpression (DBATE), a web-based repository storing expression values and functional annotation of alternative splicingvariants. We processed 13 large RNA-seq panels from human healthy tissues and in disease conditions, reporting expressionlevels and functional annotations gathered and integrated from different sources for each splicing variant, using a variantspecific annotation transfer pipeline. The possibility to perform complex queries by cross-referencing different functionalannotations permits the retrieval of desired subsets of splicing variant expression values that can be visualized in severalways, from simple to more informative. DBATE is intended as a novel tool to help appreciate how, and possibly why, thetranscriptome expression is shaped.