Plant Science

Transcriptome analysis can provide clues to biological processes affected in different genetic backgrounds or/and under various conditions. The price of RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has decreased enough so that medium- to large-scale transcriptome analyses in a range of conditions are feasible. However, the price and variety of options for library preparation of RNA-seq can still be daunting to those who would like to use RNA-seq for their first time or for a single experiment. Among the criteria for selecting a library preparation protocol are the method of RNA isolation, nucleotide fragmentation to obtain desired size range, and library indexing to pool sequencing samples for multiplexing. Here, we present a high-quality and a high-throughput option for preparing libraries from polyadenylated mRNA for transcriptome analysis. Both high-quality and high-throughput protocol options include steps of mRNA enrichment through magnetic bead-enabled precipitation of the poly-A tail, cDNA synthesis, and then fragmentation and adapter addition simultaneously through Tn5-mediated ‘tagmentation’. All steps of the protocols have been validated with Arabidopsis thaliana leaf and seedling tissues and streamlined to work together, with minimal cost in money and time, thus intended to provide a beginner-friendly start-to-finish RNA-seq library preparation for transcriptome analysis.

N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A) is the most prevalent internal modification of eukaryotic messenger RNA (mRNA). The total amount of m⁶A can be detected by several methods, such as dot blot analysis using specific m⁶A antibodies and quantitative liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) (Fu et al., 2014; Shen et al., 2016). Here we describe the method for fast detection of total m⁶A levels in mRNA by dot blot analysis using a specific m⁶A antibody.

This protocol has been designed in order to facilitate the isolation and extraction of total RNA from microspores collected from lily anther sacs. This protocol allows the extraction of high amounts of high quality RNA, as observed in agarose gels.