RNA-Seq from any organism using probe-free rRNA depletion

RiboFree^™: Universal Probe-free Depletion

RNA-Seq is a powerful tool that allows researchers to effectively digitize the transcriptome of a biological sample. However, ribosomal RNA (rRNA) transcripts typically comprise between 80% and 90% of all cellular RNAs and must be eliminated from RNA-Seq libraries for researchers to efficiently analyze the remaining 10% of biologically relevant sequences. 

Oligo(T)-mediated mRNA-enrichment and probe-based ribosomal depletion are the two of the most common methods used to eliminate rRNA reads from RNA-Seq libraries. In the former, only mRNA transcripts with sufficiently long poly-adenylated tails are captured, and in the latter, high concentrations of species-specific DNA probe-sets are used to capture and eliminate complementary rRNA transcripts.  Both of the methods introduce off-target bias into RNA-Seq data.

Zymo Research has developed a novel probe-free rRNA depletion method which is effectively free of bias and best preserves the original transcriptome profile of a sample. We find that the probe-free method is universally applicable to any species, even across samples representing organisms from different biological kingdoms and phyla. Probe-free universal depletion is integrated into Zymo-Seq Ribo-Free™ Total RNA Library Kit.