Effect of RNA integrity on uniquely mapped reads in RNA-Seq.

Background: We examined the performance of three RNA-Sequencing library preparation protocols as a function of RNA integrity, comparing gene expressions between heat-degraded samples to their high-quality counterparts. This work is invaluable given the difficulty of obtaining high-quality RNA from tissues, particularly those from individuals with disease phenotypes.

Results: With the integrity of total RNA being a critical parameter for RNA-Sequencing analysis, degraded RNA can heavily influence the results of gene expression profiles.