Clontech Laboratories, Inc. Releases the SMARTer® Universal Low Input RNA Kit for Sequencing

Clontech Laboratories, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., today announced the release of the SMARTer Universal Low Input RNA Kit for Sequencing. The SMARTer Universal Low Input RNA Kit extends Clontech's NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) solutions to include low input samples of compromised RNA. It combines Clontech's patented SMART™ (Switching Mechanism at 5' End of RNA Template) technology for ds cDNA synthesis with random priming, to facilitate transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) from degraded total RNA samples acquired via common sample preparation techniques such as formaldehyde fixed paraffin embedded tissue (FFPE) and laser capture microscopy (LCM), which result in a loss of overall sample quality and/or yield.

Carol Lou, General Manager of Clontech Laboratories, Inc., comments: "Clontech has already pushed the limits of RNA-Seq down to the single cell level with our SMARTer Ultra Low RNA Kit for Illumina® Sequencing. Today, we are expanding the applications of SMART technology to include cDNA synthesis from samples that contain degraded RNA (e.g. FFPE or LCM samples) or non-polyadenylated RNA. We expect the SMARTer Universal Low Input RNA Kit for Sequencing to be a welcome addition to RNA-Seq research."

RNA-Seq has revolutionized gene expression profiling, enabling researchers to characterize a cell's entire transcriptional activity at the nucleotide level. This ability to analyze all expressed genes both qualitatively and quantitatively, without assumptions (no a priorirequirements for probe design), is leading to many significant advances in the field of biomedical research, including new findings in the fields of development, cancer research, plant biology, and neurobiology.

The SMART protocol greatly reduces handling of the RNA sample, thereby minimizing the risk of sample loss and preserving the original message. The efficient incorporation of known sequences at both ends of the cDNA during first strand synthesis enables researchers to perform the entire protocol in a single tube, without a separate adaptor ligation step. The SMARTer Universal Low Input RNA Kit for Sequencing broadens the applications of RNA-Seq to include very low amounts of total RNA that are either compromised such as FFPE and LCM samples, or are from sources that do not have polyadenylated mRNA. Clontech plans to further expand the utility of the SMARTer kits for NGS by combining them with other key technologies, including multiplex library preparation.