Differential expression between alcoholics and controls is able to distinguish ~1000 genes and ~1200 significant alternatively spliced transcripts (Fig. 11.8). Genes and corresponding spliced isoforms tend to follow similar patterns of differential expression in relation to alcohol dependence. The majority of genes and splice variants with a p-value ≤0.05 have only a modest, less than twofold change in expression. Statistically significant genes, or alternatively spliced transcripts, with larger fold changes in expression are usually weaker in overall expression. In some circumstances, it may be advantageous to remove missing or low-level counts; however, some methods of statistical inference may account for extreme or missing variables (Anders et al., 2013). Individual exons are more abundant in RNA-Seq counts, making no assumption of its interconnection with other units to form a functional RNA molecule. Approximately, 11,000 individual exons are differentially expressed in the prefrontal cortex of alcoholics (Fig. 11.8). Additionally, a greater number of exon features have fold-change values >2, which may suggest some gene or isoform reconstructions underestimate some of the differences occurring with alcohol dependence. Although individual exons cannot function solely
