Author Spotlight: AQRNA-seq Role in Mapping Small RNAs and Unraveling Protein Translation Mechanisms

AQRNA sequencing quantitatively maps small RNAs such as microRNAs, tRNAs, and tRNA fragments in virtually any cell or tissue sample. It can be used to map some of the 170 known tRNA modifications, but there are other methods that are more specific for mapping. You can use AQRNA-seq to discover disease biomarkers in the RNome and explore protein translation mechanisms at the systems level.

Most RNA-seq methods can’t accurately quantify the abundance of individual RNA molecules in a sample. This is caused by both structural properties of the RNA, such as secondary structures, post transcriptional modifications, as well as the biochemistry of library preparation such as ligation biases of a thousand fold induced by the terminal nucleotides on the RNAs. AQRNA-seq was developed to overcome several technical and biological challenges, limiting the accurate quantification of RNA abundance in the sample.

Compared to other matters, it achieves linearity between recounts and copy numbers of RNA molecules, accurately, it quantifies 75%of a reference library, compressing 963 microRNAs with twofold accuracy. AQRNA-seq is unique in providing absolute quantification of small RNAs. This links the sequencing recounts directly to the number of copies of an RNA molecule in the sample.

This level of accuracy is crucial for comparing dozens to hundreds of tRNAs in a sample, and it’s unlike regular small RNA-seq, which only permits relative quantification across conditions and samples. We designed AQRNA-seq for an unmet need in understanding protein translation. We found that cells reprogrammed dozens of tRNA modifications in the number of copies of the modified tRNAs, to allow selective translation of messenger RNAs that are enriched with codons matching those tRNAs.

AQRNA-seq allows us to quantify changes in the tRNA pool as part of this mechanism. We’ve used it extensively to validate this new model for protein translation.