Nano3P-seq: transcriptome-wide analysis of gene expression and tail dynamics using end-capture nanopore cDNA sequencing

• Published in: Nature methods Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 75 - 85
• Main Authors: Begik, Oguzhan, Diensthuber, Gregor, Liu, Huanle, Delgado-Tejedor, Anna, Kontur, Cassandra, Niazi, Adnan Muhammad, Valen, Eivind, Giraldez, Antonio J., Beaudoin, Jean-Denis, Mattick, John S., Novoa, Eva Maria
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.01.2023; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/337/1645; 631/337/2019; 631/61/514/1949; Abundance; Animal models; Animals; Bioinformatics; Biological Microscopy; Biological Techniques; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedical Engineering/Biotechnology; Biotypes; Composition; DNA, Complementary - genetics; Embryogenesis; Embryonic growth stage; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene sequencing; Heterogeneity; Life Sciences; Mice; Mitochondria; mRNA turnover; Nanopores; Nucleotide sequence; Poly A - genetics; Poly A - metabolism; Polyadenylation; Proteomics; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA - genetics; RNA, Messenger - genetics; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; rRNA 16S; Sequence Analysis, RNA - methods; Stability; Tails; Transcriptome; Transcriptomes; Vertebrates; Zebrafish; Zebrafish - genetics; Zebrafish - metabolism
• ISSN: 1548-7091; 1548-7105; 1548-7105
• DOI: 10.1038/s41592-022-01714-w

RNA polyadenylation plays a central role in RNA maturation, fate, and stability. In response to developmental cues, polyA tail lengths can vary, affecting the translation efficiency and stability of mRNAs. Here we develop Nanopore 3′ end-capture sequencing (Nano3P-seq), a method that relies on nanopore cDNA sequencing to simultaneously quantify RNA abundance, tail composition, and tail length dynamics at per-read resolution. By employing a template-switching-based sequencing protocol, Nano3P-seq can sequence RNA molecule from its 3′ end, regardless of its polyadenylation status, without the need for PCR amplification or ligation of RNA adapters. We demonstrate that Nano3P-seq provides quantitative estimates of RNA abundance and tail lengths, and captures a wide diversity of RNA biotypes. We find that, in addition to mRNA and long non-coding RNA, polyA tails can be identified in 16S mitochondrial ribosomal RNA in both mouse and zebrafish models. Moreover, we show that mRNA tail lengths are dynamically regulated during vertebrate embryogenesis at an isoform-specific level, correlating with mRNA decay. Finally, we demonstrate the ability of Nano3P-seq in capturing non-A bases within polyA tails of various lengths, and reveal their distribution during vertebrate embryogenesis. Overall, Nano3P-seq is a simple and robust method for accurately estimating transcript levels, tail lengths, and tail composition heterogeneity in individual reads, with minimal library preparation biases, both in the coding and non-coding transcriptome. Nano3P-seq presents a nanopore-based sequencing tool to profile polyA-tailed and non-polyA-tailed transcripts, as well as capture polyA tail length and composition.