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Abstract Background Ribo-seq has revolutionized the study of genome-wide mRNA translation. High-quality Ribo-seq data display strong 3-nucleotide (nt) periodicity, which corresponds to translating ribosomes deciphering three nts at a time. While 3-nt periodicity has been widely used to study novel translation events such as upstream ORFs in 5′ untranslated regions and small ORFs in presumed non-coding RNAs, tools that allow the visualization of these events remain underdeveloped. Results RiboPlotR is a visualization package written in R that presents both RNA-seq coverage and Ribo-seq reads in genomic coordinates for all annotated transcript isoforms of a gene. Specifically, for individual isoform models, RiboPlotR plots Ribo-seq data in the context of gene structures, including 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions and introns, and it presents the reads for all three reading frames in three different colors. The inclusion of gene structures and color-coding the reading frames facilitate observing new translation events and identifying potential regulatory mechanisms. Conclusions RiboPlotR is freely available ( https://github.com/hsinyenwu/RiboPlotR and https://sourceforge.net/projects/riboplotr/ ) and allows the visualization of translated features identified in Ribo-seq data.
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This content will become publicly available on July 22, 2026
The ggRibo single-gene viewer reveals insights into translatome and other nucleotide-resolution omics data
Visualizing Ribo-seq and other sequencing data within genes of interest is a powerful approach to studying gene expression, but its application is limited by a lack of robust tools. Here, we introduce ggRibo, a user-friendly R package for visualizing individual gene expression, integrating Ribo-seq, RNA-seq, and other genome-wide datasets with flexible scaling options. ggRibo visualizes 3-nucleotide periodicity, a hallmark of translating ribosomes, within a gene-structure context, including introns and untranslated regions, enabling the study of novel ORFs, translation of different isoforms, and mechanisms of translational regulation. ggRibo can plot multiple Ribo-seq/RNA-seq datasets from different conditions for comparison. It also contains functions for plotting single-transcript view, reading-frame decomposition, and RNA-seq coverage alone. Importantly, ggRibo supports the visualization of other omics datasets that could also be presented with single-nucleotide resolution, such as RNA degradome, transcription start sites, translation initiation sites, and epitranscriptomic modifications. We demonstrate its utility with examples of upstream ORFs, downstream ORFs, nested ORFs, and differential isoform translation in humans,Arabidopsis, tomato, and rice. We also provide examples of multiomic comparisons that reveal insights that connect the transcriptome, translatome, and degradome. In summary, ggRibo is an advanced single-gene viewer that offers a valuable resource for studying gene expression regulation through its intuitive and flexible platform.
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- PAR ID:
- 10618887
- Publisher / Repository:
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Genome Research
- ISSN:
- 1088-9051
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- gr.280480.125
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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