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June 1, 2021

Library prep and bioinformatics improvements for full-length transcript sequencing on the PacBio Sequel System

The PacBio Iso-Seq method produces high-quality, full-length transcripts of up to 10 kb and longer and has been used to annotate many important plant and animal genomes. Here we describe an improved, simplified library workflow and analysis pipeline that reduces library preparation time, RNA input, and cost. The Iso-Seq V2 Express workflow is a one day protocol that requires only ~300 ng of total RNA input while also reducing the number of reverse transcription and amplification steps down to single reactions. Compared with the previous workflow, the Iso-Seq V2 Express workflow increases the percentage of full-length (FL) reads while achieving a higher average transcript length. At the same time, the Iso-Seq 3 analysis recently released in the SMRT Link 6.0 software is a major improvement over previous versions. Iso-Seq 3 is highly accurate at detecting and removing library artifacts (TSO and RT artifacts) as well as differentiating barcodes on multiplexed samples. Iso-Seq 3 achieves the same output performance in high-quality transcript sequences compared to previous versions while reducing the runtime and memory usage dramatically.


June 1, 2021

Single cell isoform sequencing (scIso-Seq) identifies novel full-length mRNAs and cell type-specific expression

Single cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) is an emerging field for characterizing cell heterogeneity in complex tissues. However, most scRNA-seq methodologies are limited to gene count information due to short read lengths. Here, we combine the microfluidics scRNA-seq technique, Drop-Seq, with PacBio Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) Sequencing to generate full-length transcript isoforms that can be confidently assigned to individual cells. We generated single cell Iso-Seq (scIso-Seq) libraries for chimp and human cerebral organoid samples on the Dolomite Nadia platform and sequenced each library with two SMRT Cells 8M on the PacBio Sequel II System. We developed a bioinformatics pipeline to identify, classify, and filter full-length isoforms at the single-cell level. We show that scIso-Seq reveals full-length isoform information not accessible using short reads that can reveal differences between cell types and amongst different species.


June 1, 2021

Full-Length RNA-seq of Alzheimer brain on the PacBio Sequel II System

The PacBio Iso-Seq method produces high-quality, full-length transcripts and can characterize a whole transcriptome with a single SMRT Cell 8M. We sequenced an Alzheimer whole brain sample on a single SMRT Cell 8M on the Sequel II System. Using the Iso-Seq bioinformatics pipeline followed by SQANTI2 analysis, we detected 162,290 transcripts for 17,670 genes up to 14 kb in length. More than 60% of the transcripts are novel isoforms, the vast majority of which have supporting cage peak data and polyadenylation signals, demonstrating the utility of long-read sequencing for human disease research.


June 1, 2021

A complete solution for full-length transcript sequencing using the PacBio Sequel II System

Long read mRNA sequencing methods such as PacBio’s Iso-Seq method offers high-throughput transcriptome profiling in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. By avoiding the transcript assembly problem and instead sequencing full-length cDNA, Iso-Seq has emerged as the most reliable technology for annotating isoforms and, in turn, improving proteome predictions in a wide variety of organisms. Improvements in library preparation, sequencing throughput, and bioinformatics has enabled the Iso-Seq method to be complete solution for transcript characterization. The Iso-Seq Express kit is a one-day library prep requiring 60-300 ng of total RNA. The PacBio Sequel II system produces 4-5 million full-length reads, sufficient to profile a whole human transcriptome. Finally, the SQANTI2 software is a powerful tool for categorizing the complex isoforms against reference annotations, while also incorporating orthogonal information such as CAGE peak data, public RNA-seq junction data, and ORF predictions.


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