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Comparing the abundance of one RNA molecule to another is crucial for understanding cellular functions but most sequencing techniques can target only specific subsets of RNA. In this study, we used a new fragmented ribodepleted TGIRT sequencing method that uses a thermostable group II intron reverse transcriptase (TGIRT) to generate a portrait of the human transcriptome depicting the quantitative relationship of all classes of nonribosomal RNA longer than 60 nt. Comparison between different sequencing methods indicated that FRT is more accurate in ranking both mRNA and noncoding RNA than viral reverse transcriptase-based sequencing methods, even those that specifically target these species. Measurements of RNA abundance in different cell lines using this method correlate with biochemical estimates, confirming tRNA as the most abundant nonribosomal RNA biotype. However, the single most abundant transcript is 7SL RNA, a component of the signal recognition particle. S tructured n on c oding RNAs (sncRNAs) associated with the same biological process are expressed at similar levels, with the exception of RNAs with multiple functions like U1 snRNA. In general, sncRNAs forming RNPs are hundreds to thousands of times more abundant than their mRNA counterparts. Surprisingly, only 50 sncRNA genes produce half of the non-rRNA transcripts detected in two different cell lines. Together the results indicate that the human transcriptome is dominated by a small number of highly expressed sncRNAs specializing in functions related to translation and splicing., (© 2018 Boivin et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the RNA Society.)

Next-generation RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has revolutionized our ability to analyze transcriptomes. Current RNA-seq methods are highly reproducible, but each has biases resulting from different modes of RNA sample preparation, reverse transcription, and adapter addition, leading to variability between methods. Moreover, the transcriptome cannot be profiled comprehensively because highly structured RNAs, such as tRNAs and snoRNAs, are refractory to conventional RNA-seq methods. Recently, we developed a new method for strand-specific RNA-seq using thermostable group II intron reverse transcriptases (TGIRTs). TGIRT enzymes have higher processivity and fidelity than conventional retroviral reverse transcriptases plus a novel template-switching activity that enables RNA-seq adapter addition during cDNA synthesis without using RNA ligase. Here, we obtained TGIRT-seq data sets for well-characterized human RNA reference samples and compared them to previous data sets obtained for these RNAs by the Illumina TruSeq v2 and v3 methods. We find that TGIRT-seq recapitulates the relative abundance of human transcripts and RNA spike-ins in ribo-depleted, fragmented RNA samples comparably to non-strand-specific TruSeq v2 and better than strand-specific TruSeq v3. Moreover, TGIRT-seq is more strand specific than TruSeq v3 and eliminates sampling biases from random hexamer priming, which are inherent to TruSeq. The TGIRT-seq data sets also show more uniform 5' to 3' gene coverage and identify more splice junctions, particularly near the 5' ends of mRNAs, than do the TruSeq data sets. Finally, TGIRT-seq enables the simultaneous profiling of mRNAs and lncRNAs in the same RNA-seq experiment as structured small ncRNAs, including tRNAs, which are essentially absent with TruSeq., (© 2016 Nottingham et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the RNA Society.)

Next-generation RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) has revolutionized transcriptome profiling, gene expression analysis, and RNA-based diagnostics. Here, we developed a new RNA-seq method that exploits thermostable group II intron reverse transcriptases (TGIRTs) and used it to profile human plasma RNAs. TGIRTs have higher thermostability, processivity, and fidelity than conventional reverse transcriptases, plus a novel template-switching activity that can efficiently attach RNA-seq adapters to target RNA sequences without RNA ligation. The new TGIRT-seq method enabled construction of RNA-seq libraries from <1 ng of plasma RNA in <5 h. TGIRT-seq of RNA in 1-mL plasma samples from a healthy individual revealed RNA fragments mapping to a diverse population of protein-coding gene and long ncRNAs, which are enriched in intron and antisense sequences, as well as nearly all known classes of small ncRNAs, some of which have never before been seen in plasma. Surprisingly, many of the small ncRNA species were present as full-length transcripts, suggesting that they are protected from plasma RNases in ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes and/or exosomes. This TGIRT-seq method is readily adaptable for profiling of whole-cell, exosomal, and miRNAs, and for related procedures, such as HITS-CLIP and ribosome profiling., (© 2015 Qin et al.; Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press for the RNA Society.)