Small RNA and miRNA Sequencing

Ion Torrent semiconductor sequencing combines a simple, integrated wet-lab workflow with Torrent Suite™ Software and third-party solutions for fast identification, characterization, and reporting of small RNA expression.

Sequencing run reports are provided, and with expandable analysis plots and straightforward tables summarizing key results, are easily browsed to help ensure high-quality sequencing runs. With a simple right-click, Torrent Suite Software provides the sequence reads in exportable FASTQ and BAM file formats for direct upload to third-party analysis software.

Third-party software, such as Partek™ Flow™ Software packages, performs read alignment, microRNA level abundance measurements, and multi-sample differential microRNA expression analysis. Partek also provides quality-control metrics and interactive data visualization.

Since the discovery of microRNA (short ~22mer RNA sequences that bind to mRNA and inhibit translation), the study of gene expression regulation has expanded tremendously. With the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in the last decade, researchers have harnessed the power of deep sequencing to further reveal the complexity of these small RNA species, which have expanded to include multiple classes of small RNA such as microRNA (miRNA), short-interfering RNA (siRNA), and piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA), among others.

Ambion RNA kits offer a perfect way to isolate and purify your samples, enabling high-quality capture of small RNA species. Leveraging the knowledge leadership of Thermo Fisher Scientific and integrating kits that isolate and purify small RNA species creates a complete solution that is optimized for small RNA analysis on the Ion S5 and Ion PGM systems. The scalability of these systems enables you to include a range of samples per run, giving you the throughput flexibility to match your experiment sizes. Although other NGS platforms can also analyze small RNA, their ultrahigh-throughput format requires batching hundreds of samples per run, potentially delaying your time to results.

Choose the Ion GeneStudio S5 series for superior throughput flexibility, enabling you to scale from small RNA to targeted transcriptome analysis on a single instrument. As a tool for targeted expression analysis, NGS complements microarrays nicely by offering:

• Superior sensitivity, with a greater dynamic range, to detect more transcripts and subtle changes in gene expression
• Discrimination between sequences from closely related small RNA families
• Detection of novel small RNA sequences
• Digital output enabling results to be compared over time and between studies and labs
• Close correlation with TaqMan™ Assay results