Accurate RNA consensus sequencing for high-fidelity detection of transcriptional mutagenesis-induced epimutations

KS Reid-Bayliss, LA Loeb - Proceedings of the National …, 2017 - National Acad Sciences
KS Reid-Bayliss, LA Loeb
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2017National Acad Sciences
Transcriptional mutagenesis (TM) due to misincorporation during RNA transcription can
result in mutant RNAs, or epimutations, that generate proteins with altered properties. TM
has long been hypothesized to play a role in aging, cancer, and viral and bacterial evolution.
However, inadequate methodologies have limited progress in elucidating a causal
association. We present a high-throughput, highly accurate RNA sequencing method to
measure epimutations with single-molecule sensitivity. Accurate RNA consensus …
Transcriptional mutagenesis (TM) due to misincorporation during RNA transcription can result in mutant RNAs, or epimutations, that generate proteins with altered properties. TM has long been hypothesized to play a role in aging, cancer, and viral and bacterial evolution. However, inadequate methodologies have limited progress in elucidating a causal association. We present a high-throughput, highly accurate RNA sequencing method to measure epimutations with single-molecule sensitivity. Accurate RNA consensus sequencing (ARC-seq) uniquely combines RNA barcoding and generation of multiple cDNA copies per RNA molecule to eliminate errors introduced during cDNA synthesis, PCR, and sequencing. The stringency of ARC-seq can be scaled to accommodate the quality of input RNAs. We apply ARC-seq to directly assess transcriptome-wide epimutations resulting from RNA polymerase mutants and oxidative stress.
National Acad Sciences