Applied Biosystems has launched the SOLiD whole transcriptome expression kit, a sequencing-based molecular tool for the genomic analysis of whole transcriptomes, the RNAs transcribed from a genome.
This technology, which provides detailed characterisation of expressed protein-encoding genes, identifies many non-coding RNAs and includes sample multiplexing capability is expected to be available for limited release through an early-access programme that will begin in November 2008.
It is designed for use with the SOLiD system ultra-high-throughput genomic analysis platform.
It provides new views of a cell's transcriptome, such as expression of non-coding RNAs, identification of alternative splicing events, expressed SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) or mutations, translocations and fusion transcripts.
The kit is expected to advance treatment of complex diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and accelerate time course studies in which analysis of differential RNA expression provides insight into the level and mechanism of action of a particular treatment.
It should reduce sample preparation time for RNA analysis by approximately 50 per cent.
Using the multiplexing capability of the kit, up to 10 RNA libraries can be sequenced simultaneously, reducing the cost of analysis per sample.
It also conserves strandedness of cDNA, which allows researchers to distinguish between overlapping RNAs transcribed from the sense or antisense strand.
The SOLiD system can generate up to 240 million sequence reads, or tags per run.
The high number of tags enables researchers to multiplex samples in a single sequencing reaction, further reducing cost.
