Cryptic sequence features in the active postmortem transcriptome.

Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that transcripts involved in responding to extreme stress, such as organismal death, have sequence features that make them different from the rest of the transcriptome. Some of these features serve as putative binding sites for proteins and non-coding RNAs that determine transcript stability and fate. A small number of the transcripts have high density sequence features, which are presumably involved in sequestering RNA binding proteins and microRNAs and thus preventing regulatory interactions among other transcripts. Our results provide baseline data on post-transcriptional regulation in stressful conditions that has implications for regulation in disease, starvation, and cancer.