GSE167300
Systematic comparative analysis of strand-specific, cost-effective, RNA-seq library preparation methods for low input samples
Despite the precipitous decline in the cost of genome sequencing over the last few years, library preparation for RNA-seq is still laborious and expensive for high throughput screening for drug discovery. Limited availability of RNA generated by some experimental workflows poses an additional challenge and typically adds to the cost of RNA library preparation. In a search for low cost, automation-compatible RNA library preparation kits that also maintain strand specificity and are amenable to low input RNA quantities, we systematically tested two recent commercial technologies – Swift and Swift Rapid – using the Illumina TruSeq stranded mRNA, the de facto standard workflow for bulk transcriptomics, as our reference. We used the Universal Human Reference RNA (UHRR) (composed of equal quantities of total RNA from 10 human cancer cell lines) to benchmark differential gene expression in these kits, at input quantities ranging between 10 ng to 500 ng. Read quality and alignment metrics revealed high mapping efficiency and uniform read coverage through genes for all samples across all three kits. Normalized read counts between all treatment groups were in high agreement, with pairwise Pearson correlation coefficients >0.97. Compared to the Illumina TruSeq stranded mRNA kit, both Swift RNA library kits are cost effective and offer shorter workflow times enabled by their patented Adaptase technology. Furthermore, the Swift RNA kit allows for a relatively broader (and lower) input range, producing consistent results across diverse samples. The Swift Rapid RNA method is the fastest and most cost effective NGS workflow that is best suited for higher RNA yields, with the exact same RNA input range as the Illumina TruSeq kit. We also found the Swift RNA kit to produce the fewest number of differentially expressed genes and pathways attributable to input mRNA concentration. Overall design: Comparison of mRNA samples prepared with 3 different library preparation methods (Illumina TruSeq, Swift, Swift Rapid) at multiple input mRNA concentrations