Sequencing - RNA Sequencing

RNA Sequencing

RNA is less stable in the cell, and also more prone to nuclease attack experimentally. As RNA is generated by transcription from DNA, the information is already present in the cell's DNA. However, it is sometimes desirable to sequence RNA molecules. In particular, in Eukaryotes RNA molecules are not necessarily co-linear with their DNA template, as introns are excised. To sequence RNA, the usual method is first to reverse transcribe the sample to generate cDNA fragments. This can then be sequenced as described above.

For more information on the capabilities of next-generation sequencing applied to whole transcriptomes see: RNA-Seq and MicroRNA Sequencing.