NuGEN Technologies has announced the launch of two new products, Universal Plus mRNA-Seq and Trio RNA-Seq kits that enable RNA-Seq analyses from routine samples to those isolated from sources like cfRNA and FFPE which normally produce rare or low quality nucleic acids.
Universal Plus mRNA-Seq is a comprehensive solution for mRNA sequencing with the unique option to eliminate unwanted transcripts after library construction using the proprietary Any Deplete technology that improves the ability to detect low expressed genes. Additional benefits include a broad dynamic input range from 1 mg to as low as 10 mg and efficient library construction with minimal adaptor dimers enabled by the proprietary DimerFree technology.
In collaboration with Dr. Neeta Vora at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Dr. Piotr Mieczkowski, director of the High Throughput Sequencing Facility, used Universal Plus mRNA-Seq to study transcriptomes of fetal umbilical cord blood. Said Dr. Mieczkowski, "This type of analysis using NGS is challenging due to the high levels of uninformative globin reads in fetal blood. However, the use of the Universal Plus mRNA-Seq kit with adult and fetal globin transcript depletion, provided a simple method to eliminate over 90% of the unwanted sequences, enabling us to detect an additional 1200 low expressed genes with potential implications in pre-term birth”.
The second product, Trio RNA-Seq provides a highly sensitive whole transcriptomics solution that is ideally suited for applications with low abundance transcripts, such as detection of viral transcripts or biomarker assessment in liquid biopsy samples. The product incorporates three key technologies for high sensitivity RNA analysis; the well published Single Primer Isothermal Amplification (SPIA) technology is one of the most robust ways to amplify nucleic acids without the bias seen with PCR amplification. Second is the Dimer Free technology in the library prep step and third is the Any Deplete technology which enables the removal of unwanted transcripts after library preparation.
Dr. Todd Knutson, postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Douglas Martheler’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Minnesota has applied Trio RNA-Seq for high sensitivity detection of viruses in a variety of animal samples. “In a side-by-side comparison of methods, the Trio library preparation method increased the percentage of viral reads and reduced the percentage of host reads in our porcine samples. This gave us greater viral sequencing depth and allowed us to de novo assemble viral genomes from the metagenomics sequencing data”, said Dr. Knutson. Trio RNA-Seq’s three-pronged approach enabled an increase in the number and percentage of viral reads at a shallower sequencing depth while reducing the number of porcine rRNA reads.
“Depletion of transcripts using Any Deplete after library preparation is a key step in reducing off target effects and enabling lower inputs. The targeted removal is fully customizable for any transcript from any organism.” said Dr. Richard Fekete, VP of Marketing.
NuGEN’s products offer rapid and simple workflows for a broad range of next generation RNA and DNA sequencing applications, enabling highly sensitive detection of variants and expression levels from tissues, single cells and liquid biopsies. NuGEN’s products are used by thousands of scientists worldwide and have been cited in over 2,000 peer-reviewed publications.