An RNA‐Seq technology that assesses the complete transcriptome from miRNA to mRNA and exhibits exemplary performance on FFPE tissue samples

Abstract

RNA‐Seq is a powerful technique that measures the presence and abundance of RNAs in a cellular sample. There are two general RNA‐Seq approaches. Standard RNA‐Seq processes long RNAs, typically larger than 200 bases. Small RNA‐Seq assesses RNAs shorter than 200 bases and often targets miRNAs in the 20–26 base range. Neither of these technologies captures all RNAs in a sample and allow for interrogation of the entire transcriptome. Here we present a new RNA‐Seq technology that leverages an engineered reverse transcriptase that enables the analysis of RNAs of all sizes from microRNAs (miRNAs) to messenger RNAs (mRNAs). In addition, because the new RNA‐Seq approach processes short RNAs very efficiently, it has exemplary performance analyzing highly degraded RNA samples. We observe over 30‐fold improvement in processing FFPE RNA samples compared to other RNA‐Seq kits as well as better gene detection sensitivity and accuracy. We envision that this “Complete RNA‐Seq” technology will enable researchers to develop new insights into the complex behavior and interconnection of the entire transcriptome, analyze standard and challenging RNA samples and facilitate the discovery of new biomarkers.