Abstract
RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is revolutionizing the study of cancer by providing a highly sensitive and robust tool to interrogate the transcriptome. It leverages the power of deep sequencing technology and provides global and multidimensional views of transcriptional landscapes in healthy and tumor tissues. Such information is contributing innovative insights to our understanding of the genetic basis of cancer and the progression of the disease. RNA-seq is a superior technology to DNA microarrays in that it provides digital rather than analog information on transcripts and their isoforms. The front end (sequencing library preparation and validation) is technically complex and time intensive. The primary objective in preparing a sequencing library is to eliminate or minimize bias, so that the library is reflective of the input RNA sample in terms of both sequence content and transcript abundance. This chapter describes the RNA-seq approach, and reviews methods and good practices for library preparation and sequencing.
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Acknowledgments
This work was conducted with support from start-up funds from the MUSC COM to GH and an award from SC EPSCoR. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Medical University of South Carolina. Sean M. Courtney and Willian A. da Silveira contributed equally to this work.
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Courtney, S.M., da Silveira, W.A., Hazard, E.S., Hardiman, G. (2019). Molecular Profiling of RNA Tumors Using High-Throughput RNA Sequencing: Overview of Library Preparation Methods. In: Murray, S. (eds) Tumor Profiling. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1908. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-9004-7_12
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