In the previous post, we have takled about the workflow of DNA to RNA to Proteins, which is called DNA Transcription. When studying the genomics of some disease, sequencing the RNA (versus the DNA) becomes useful for many reasons:

• Genomes may be constant but an experimental condition (such as drug trials) has an effect on the gene expression.
• Interpreting mutations:
  • If the gene is not expressed, a mutation in that gene would be less interesting (So, why sequencing the whole DNA?)
  • If the gene is expressed but only from the wild type allele, this might suggest loss-of-function.
  • If the mutant allele itself is expressed, this might suggest a candidate drug target.
• Some molecular features are only ovservable at the RNA level such as gene fusion.

How do we obtain the RNA sequencing reads?

To be continued