TranskriptExpression

TranskriptExpression is a term used in some discussions of RNA biology to describe the expression level of individual RNA transcripts, or isoforms, rather than aggregated gene-level activity. It emphasizes transcript-level abundance derived from RNA sequencing data and can help characterize alternative splicing and isoform usage.

In practice, TranskriptExpression is estimated by aligning or mapping sequencing reads to a reference transcriptome and counting reads assigned to each transcript. Modern methods often use pseudoalignment strategies (for example, Salmon or Kallisto) to estimate transcript abundances, outputting values such as transcripts per million (TPM) or fragments per kilobase of transcript per million mapped reads (FPKM).

Applications include differential expression analyses at the transcript level, investigation of tissue- or condition-specific isoform patterns, and integration with proteomic data to better understand protein isoforms. It also supports the refinement of gene annotations by revealing dominant transcripts under specific conditions.

Terminology and usage vary. Some sources treat TranskriptExpression as synonymous with transcript-level expression, while others use it to denote a specific computational workflow or metric introduced in particular studies. The term is less standardized than gene-level expression and may be more common in German-language literature where Transkript is the German spelling for transcript.

Limitations include ambiguity in assigning reads to highly similar transcripts, dependence on annotation quality, and potential biases from library preparation. Interpretations of transcript-level expression often require careful normalization and validation.