Whole transcriptome or RNA sequencing (RNAseq) is an unbiased sequencing method to assess all RNA products. The goal of targeted RNAseq (Capture) is a focused evaluation of selected transcripts with increased sensitivity, dynamic range, reduced cost or scale, and increased throughput compared to standard RNAseq. Similar to standard RNAseq, targeted enrichment approaches can be used to evaluate gene expression, multiple RNA species such as mRNA, microRNA (miRNA), lncRNA1, other noncoding RNAs2, gene fusions3, and mutations4-6.
Capture involves hybridization of complementary oligonucleotides to enrich cDNA libraries for sequencing. The rationale for RNAseq Capture is similar to microarray approaches where complementary oligonucleotides or probes are hybridized to samples and then measured for relative abundance. For microarray technologies, expression is based on relative signal measured for transcripts binding to these probes. Microarrays are thus limited by range, potential background noise from non-specific binding, and cross-hybridization of probes. Furthermore, arrays have limited dynamic range for low and highly expressed transcripts compared to RNAseq1. Microarrays are widely utilized due to their reduced cost and high throughput capacity compared to RNAseq.
Here, we demonstrate a method for RNAseq Capture that offers a middle ground between RNAseq and microarray approaches for evaluating the transcriptome. RNAseq Capture has intermediate throughput, greater dynamic range and sensitivity, and is scaled for fast turnaround on desktop sequencers. RNAseq Capture also requires reduced computational resources in terms of storage space and data processing.