Comprehensive evaluation of AmpliSeq transcriptome, a novel targeted whole transcriptome RNA sequencing methodology for global gene expression analysis

Wenli Li, Amy Turner, Praful Aggarwal, Andrea Matter, Erin Storvick, Donna K. Arnett, Ulrich Broeckel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

56 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background: Whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) represents a powerful approach for whole transcriptome gene expression analysis. However, RNA-seq carries a few limitations, e.g., the requirement of a significant amount of input RNA and complications led by non-specific mapping of short reads. The Ion AmpliSeq™ Transcriptome Human Gene Expression Kit (AmpliSeq) was recently introduced by Life Technologies as a whole-transcriptome, targeted gene quantification kit to overcome these limitations of RNA-seq. To assess the performance of this new methodology, we performed a comprehensive comparison of AmpliSeq with RNA-seq using two well-established next-generation sequencing platforms (Illumina HiSeq and Ion Torrent Proton). We analyzed standard reference RNA samples and RNA samples obtained from human induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). Results: Using published data from two standard RNA reference samples, we observed a strong concordance of log2 fold change for all genes when comparing AmpliSeq to Illumina HiSeq (Pearson's r=0.92) and Ion Torrent Proton (Pearson's r=0.92). We used ROC, Matthew's correlation coefficient and RMSD to determine the overall performance characteristics. All three statistical methods demonstrate AmpliSeq as a highly accurate method for differential gene expression analysis. Additionally, for genes with high abundance, AmpliSeq outperforms the two RNA-seq methods. When analyzing four closely related hiPSC-CM lines, we show that both AmpliSeq and RNA-seq capture similar global gene expression patterns consistent with known sources of variations. Conclusions: Our study indicates that AmpliSeq excels in the limiting areas of RNA-seq for gene expression quantification analysis. Thus, AmpliSeq stands as a very sensitive and cost-effective approach for very large scale gene expression analysis and mRNA marker screening with high accuracy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1069
JournalBMC Genomics
Volume16
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 16 2015

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
HyperGEN: Genetics of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy, ancillary to the Family Blood Pressure Program, http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/show/NCT00005267. American Heart Association: a postdoctoral fellowship grant to WL (15POST22490013). Funding is supported in part by a grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (U01 HL107437).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Li et al.

Keywords

  • Differential gene expression
  • HiPSC-CMs
  • Targeted gene quantification

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Genetics

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