Although standard RNA-Seq has helped researchers obtain useful data from full transcripts, in the vast majority of cases scientists only need to perform differential gene expression analysis (DGE), which does not require information from the entire transcript. The 3’Tag RNA-Seq protocol was developed to lower costs and to help researchers focus on DGE data. This method generates DGE data with only one library molecule per transcript, which is complementary to the 3′-end sequence. Due to its selectivity, much less sequencing depth is required for 3’Tag RNA-Seq compared to standard RNA-Seq [1 ..read more

Small RNAs are polymeric RNA molecules shorter than 200 nucleotides in length and are generally non-coding. However, they still have very important roles to play in biological systems and different types of diseases. Under the umbrella of small RNAs are microRNAs (miRNAs), which are about ~22 nucleotides in length and well conserved across species. MicroRNAs are studied by many researchers because although they are non-coding RNA molecules, they are involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression through both degradation and translational repression [1]. In cancer research speci ..read more

Amplicon sequencing is a type of targeted sequencing that can be used for various purposes. Some common types of amplicon sequencing are 16S and ITS sequencing, which are used in phylogeny and taxonomy studies for the identification of bacteria and fungi, respectively. When there is a need to explore the genome more generally, amplicon sequencing can be used to discover rare somatic mutations, detect and characterize variants, and identify germline single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertions/deletions (INDELs), and known fusions [1, 2]. Targeted gene sequencing panel projects are anothe ..read more

Studying the Fungi kingdom is important, because they have so many different ecological roles, including decomposers, symbiotes and parasites. There are also more than 1 million different species of fungi, so researchers need to have high-throughput methods to explore this diversity [1]. One such method is next-generation sequencing. In this blog, we’ll go over why and how researchers sequence for fungi, what the ITS and 18S genes are, how to choose between them and how Genohub can help with your fungal sequencing project. Why perform sequencing for fungal community analysis? Fungal sequencing ..read more

RNA-Seq has been used consistently for years as a way to determine gene expression by correlating mRNA levels to protein levels. However, the actual translation process in vivo cannot be completely captured by this method. This is because each mRNA molecule isn’t necessarily translated into protein by ribosomes. Ribosome Profiling was developed to help complete this picture. In this blog, we’ll go over what Ribosome Profiling is, some real-world applications, a typical workflow, and how Genohub can help you with your Ribo-Seq project. What is Ribosome Profiling? In order to synthesize proteins ..read more

Last week at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Illumina presented their new sequencers, the NextSeq 1000 and NextSeq 2000.  Strengths: The NextSeq 1000 and 2000 use patterned flow cells similar to the NovaSeq 6000 System that offer the highest cluster density flow cell of any on-market NGS system. To take full advantage of these higher density flow cells, they feature a novel super resolution optics system that is optimized to increase cluster brightness, reduce channel cross-talk, and improve signal-to-noise ratio. This should increase the output and reduce the cost per run compared t ..read more