Target enrichment and quantification using isothermal linear amplified probes

Abstract

Transcript Enrichment and Quantification Utilizing Isothermally Linear-Amplified Sequencing (TEQUILA-seq) is a versatile, easy-to-perform, and cost-effective method that utilizes isothermally linearly amplified capture oligos for targeted sequencing. TEQUILA-seq reduces the cost per reaction of targeted capture by 2-3 orders of magnitude compared to standard commercial methods. When performed on the Oxford Nanopore platform for long-read RNA-seq using multiple gene panels spanning a range of sizes, TEQUILA-seq consistently and sufficiently enriched transcript coverage while maintaining transcript quantitation. Full-length transcript isoform profiling of 468 actionable cancer genes across 40 breast cancer cell lines representing different intrinsic subtypes identified transcript isoforms enriched in specific subtypes and discovered novel transcript isoforms in widely studied cancer genes, such as TP53. Among cancer genes, tumor suppressor genes were significantly enriched for aberrant transcript isoforms targeted for degradation via nonsense-mediated mRNA decay, revealing a common RNA-related mechanism for gene inactivation. TEQUILA-seq can be widely used for targeted DNA and RNA sequencing in diverse biomedical research environments.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] Government Rights This invention was made with Government support under Grant Nos. GM088342 and GM121827 awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The Government has certain rights in this invention.

[0002] Claiming priority This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 277,894, filed November 10, 2021, the contents of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety herein.

[0003] Inclusion of sequence listing The sequence listing contained in the file entitled "CHOP.P0062WO-SequenceListing.xml", which is 8 KB (measured in Microsoft Windows®) and was created on November 8, 2022, is submitted herewith by electronic submission and is incorporated herein by reference.

[0004] FIELD OF THEINVENTION The present invention relates to a method for making biotinylated oligonucleotide probes and a method for using the probes, for example, for use in applications such as long-read and short-read DNA target sequencing and RNA target sequencing based on the probe capture method approach.The method contemplated herein is efficient and cost-effective. [Background technology]

[0005] 2. Background of the Invention Targeted sequencing approaches, including hybridization-based strategies, have been used to enrich next-generation sequencing (NGS) results for sequences of regions of interest (ROIs) (Kozarewa et al., 2015). Among its many applications, targeted NGS shows great potential as a relatively cost-effective approach to diagnosing Mendelian diseases (Sun, Y., et al., 2018). For example, targeted sequencing using oligonucleotide (oligo) probe hybridization can be used to detect disease-associated copy number variations involving one or more exons (Wallace & Bean, 2021). However, despite methodological advances, commercially available biotinylated probes used for targeted sequencing remain expensive, which is a significant limitation to the already laborious and time-consuming workflow of targeted sequencing. Therefore, there is a need for an efficient and cost-effective targeted sequencing technology, which can provide the flexibility to check any gene panel / sequence panel that user defines.The creation of such probes and sequence capture technology can enable detection of a wide array of genomic and transcriptome profiles and changes, including the abnormal RNA splicing changes, which can cause gene dysregulation and change cell phenotype.

[0006] Several approaches for targeted sequencing exist, including hybridization-based strategies, "tagmentation," molecular inversion probes, and singleplex or multiplex PCR amplification (Kozarewa et al., 2015). In the hybridization capture approach, a long oligo probe that is biotinylated hybridizes to a sequence in the ROI. Using target capture or enrichment methods with custom DNA or RNA probes complementary to the sequences in the ROI, a set of sequences in the ROI can be sequenced simultaneously. Commercially available kits for hybridization capture are available from IDT (xGen Lockdown), Agilent (SureSelect), Illumina (TruSeq), Roche (NimbleGen SeqCap EZ), and Life Technologies (Ion TargetSeq) (Kozarewa et al., 2015). Unfortunately, currently available capture probes rely heavily on the use of pre-designed / optimized gene panels, either focusing on a specific research field or using pre-formulated probe design tools for ad-hoc gene panels of interest. Such custom-designed gene panel probes are usually priced according to the number of probes. Thus, a panel containing hundreds of genes can be very expensive in initial cost, and the unit cost per assay can also be expensive.

[0007] Targeted sequencing strategies are useful for both DNA and RNA sequencing applications. One area of ​​interest in RNA sequencing approaches is the study of RNA alternative splicing. Alternative splicing of pre-mRNA is a fundamental gene regulatory process that allows the production of multiple mature mRNA molecules from a single gene, greatly expanding regulatory complexity and proteomic diversity (Nilsen & Graveley, 2010). Over 95% of human genes with multiple exons are alternatively spliced ​​(Pan et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2008), resulting in RNA isoforms that may differ in their coding sequences or untranslated regions (UTRs) due to basic or complex alternative splicing patterns (Blencowe, 2006; Vaquero-Garcia et al., 2016; Park et al., 2018). These structural differences result in properties that differentially regulate the coding capacity, stability, localization, and translation of mRNAs (Baralle & Giudice, 2017). Alternative splicing can be highly cell type specific (Shalek et al., 2013; Feng et al., 2021; Joglekar et al., 2021), highly tissue type specific (Ellis et al., 2012), and highly developmental stage specific (Xu et al., 2002). Alternative splicing has a role in many biological processes, including cell proliferation, survival, homeostasis, migration, and differentiation (Braunschweig et al., 2013; Kalsotra & Cooper, 2011; Paronetto et al., 2016). Aberrant splicing has been implicated in the pathogenesis and progression of human pathologies, including neurological disorders, diabetes, and cancer (Scotti & Swanson, 2016).

[0008] Advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies have greatly expanded our knowledge of gene expression. While short-read RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) can accurately identify individual splice junctions, it has inherent limitations in reconstructing the actual transcript without error. With typical read lengths of only 100-600 bp, short reads rarely span the entire transcript and therefore require computational assembly, an error-prone process (Steijger et al., 2013). These limitations are especially noted for genes with multiple, distantly located alternative splicing regions (Garber et al., 2011) and for transcripts containing retained introns (Wang & Rio, 2018; Broseus & Ritchie, 2020). In contrast, third-generation sequencing platforms, such as those from Oxford Nanopore and PacBio, theoretically enable end-to-end sequencing of entire transcripts without compromising transcript integrity or requiring computational assembly (Bolisetty et al., 2015; Byrne et al., 2017; Tardaguila et al., 2018; Sahlin et al., 2018; Tang et al., 2020). However, due to the wide dynamic range of isoform expression in the human transcriptome, traditional long-read sequencing technologies with relatively shallow sequencing depth suffer from low sampling sensitivity and sparse coverage of rare transcripts (Stark et al., 2019). As a result, the widespread adoption of long-read sequencing to interrogate complex transcriptomes is hampered by current barriers to achieving deep isoform sequencing at affordable cost.

[0009] Long-read targeted sequencing has emerged as a powerful technique for sequencing genes of interest and shows huge potential for detection and quantification of RNA isoforms. Several methods for long-read targeted sequencing exist. Singleplex or multiplex long-range PCR amplification followed by long-read sequencing (Clark et al., 2020) utilizes primer pairs to amplify a transcript of interest from end to end. However, such methods may not be able to enrich a transcript if its first or last exon is alternatively spliced. Different primers may result in uneven coverage due to amplification bias. Cas9-assisted target enrichment using long-read sequencing (Gabrieli et al., 2018; Gilpatrick et al., 2020) introduces two Cas9 cuts to excise ROIs, but it can only be used for targeted sequencing of guide DNA, and less than 5% of on-target reads were achieved for enriched regions. Adaptive sampling for real-time selective sequencing on nanopore sequencers (Loose et al., 2016; Payne et al., 2021; Kovaka et al., 2021) selectively filters out uninformative reads during sequencing. However, although this method is currently the most effective method with longer reads (>1350 bp), it is not optimized for RNA-seq applications where there are many shorter transcripts less than 1 kb. Probe hybridization-based enrichment is a particularly efficient method (Karamitros & Magiorkinis, 2018).Two RNA capture sequencing-based (Mercer et al., 2014) approaches, RNA Capture Long Seq (Lagarde et al., 2017) and ORF Capture-Seq (Sheynkman et al., 2020), utilize tiled oligo probes to enrich for cDNAs of interest and are coupled with long-read sequencing.

[0010] In summary, despite the improvement of targeted sequencing methods, commercially available synthetic biotinylated probes are very expensive, while accessing and maintaining human ORFeome libraries is a time-consuming, expensive and labor-intensive process.Thus, there is a need for an efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly approach that provides both full-length coverage and sufficient read depth to facilitate comprehensive detection and quantification of full-length transcripts, including transcript isoforms derived from alternative splicing of precursor mRNAs. Summary of the Invention

[0011] overview In view of the above, in the present disclosure, there is provided a method for preparing a panel of biotinylated oligonucleotide probes, the method comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a set of oligonucleotides, each oligonucleotide comprising a target gene binding sequence at its 5' end and a primer binding sequence at its 3' end, each oligonucleotide having the same primer binding sequence and the 5' end of the primer binding sequence comprising a nickase target sequence; (b) incubating the set of oligonucleotides with a primer that hybridizes to the primer binding sequence and a biotinylated dNTP (e.g., biotin-dUTP) under conditions that allow for extension of the primer using the oligonucleotide as a template, thereby producing an extended primer that is complementary to the oligonucleotide, where each extended primer comprises, from 5' to 3', a primer, a nickase target sequence, and a biotinylated probe; (c) (d) nicking the extended primer, which is complementary to the oligonucleotide, with a nickase capable of cleaving the extended primer at a target sequence of the nickase to separate the biotinylated probe and regenerate the 3' end primer; (e) extending the regenerated 3' end primer using the oligonucleotide as a template to displace and release the biotinylated probe; and (f) repeating steps (c) and (d).

[0012] In certain embodiments, each oligonucleotide in the set is about 60-150 nucleotides in length. In certain embodiments, each oligonucleotide in the set comprises at its 5' end a sequence of 30-120 nucleotides capable of hybridizing to a target gene, and at its 3' end a primer binding site of 30 nucleotides. In certain embodiments, the 30 nucleotide primer binding site comprises one of the following sequences depending on the nickase to be used and selected from the following: TIFF2024543250000001.tif25128, where TIFF2024543250000002.tif3128 is the universal primer sequence and the italicized bases are the targeting sequence.

[0013] In certain embodiments, the 5'-end sequence of 30-120 nucleotides in the set of oligonucleotides is tiled across the entire sequence of each target gene.In certain embodiments, the oligonucleotides are tiled across the entire sequence of each target gene at a density of about 0.5x, about 1x, or about 2x, or greater than 0.5x, greater than 1x, or greater than 2x.In certain embodiments, the oligonucleotides are tiled across a region of the targeted gene sequence, including but not limited to the genomic DNA or RNA sequence of the target gene, including exon or / and intron sequences.

[0014] Step (b) may include (i) combining a set of oligonucleotides, primers, deoxynucleotides, and biotinylated dNTPs (e.g., biotin-dUTP) and incubating the mixture at 95° C. for 2 minutes, followed by slowly (−0.1° C. / sec.) decreasing to 4° C.; and (ii) adding a single-stranded DNA binding protein and a DNA polymerase exhibiting 5′ to 3′ strand displacement activity, and incubating at a temperature between 20° C. and 37° C. for the first primer extension. DNA polymerases with 5′ to 3′ strand displacement activity may include, but are not limited to, Klenow fragment (3′→5′ exo-) DNA polymerase; Hemo KlenTaq DNA polymerase; Bst DNA polymerase, large fragment; Bst DNA polymerase; Bsu DNA polymerase, large fragment; phi29 DNA polymerase; and Vent® (exo-) DNA polymerase.

[0015] Steps (c) through (e) may include adding nickase to the reaction and incubating at a temperature between 20° C. and 37° C., for example, where incubation is for 30 minutes to 24 hours.

[0016] Steps (d) and (e) may be carried out without any external manipulation.

[0017] The method may further comprise the step of (f) isolating and / or purifying the biotinylated probe.

[0018] The nickase may be, but is not limited to, Nt.BspQI, Nt.BstNBI, Nb.AlwI, or Nt.BsmAI.

[0019] The extension in steps (b) and (d) is DNA polymerases with 5' to 3' strand displacement activity, including, but not limited to, Klenow fragment (3'→5' exo-) DNA polymerase; Hemo KlenTaq DNA polymerase; Bst DNA polymerase, large fragment; Bst DNA polymerase; Bsu DNA polymerase, large fragment; phi29 DNA polymerase; and Vent (exo-) DNA polymerase. This may be carried out by

[0020] The method may be an isothermal reaction. The method may be carried out at a temperature between 20°C and 37°C.

[0021] Also provided is a panel of biotinylated oligonucleotide probes made by the methods disclosed herein. Each probe may contain one or more biotin-NMP residues (e.g., biotin-UMP residues). Each probe may consist of a sequence complementary to a target nucleic acid sequence, including but not limited to a DNA locus of a gene, a transcript isoform, or an intergenic DNA region.

[0022] In yet another embodiment, (a) obtaining a sample containing a plurality of nucleic acid molecules; (b) hybridizing a panel of probes according to any one of claims 18 to 20 to the plurality of nucleic acid molecules; (c) capturing the hybridized probes using streptavidin beads; (d) amplifying the nucleic acid molecules bound to the captured hybridized probes; and (e) sequencing the amplified nucleic acid molecules. A method for sequencing multiple types of nucleic acid molecules is provided, comprising:

[0023] Sequencing may include Sanger sequencing; sequencing-by-synthesis, including but not limited to Illumina's NGS platform sequencing and PacBio's long-read sequencing; or nanopore sequencing. Sequencing may include long-read sequencing. Sequencing may include short-read sequencing.

[0024] Streptavidin beads can be magnetic.Sample can be dsDNA library, including but not limited to cDNA library and fragmented genomic DNA library, for example, cDNA library is made by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction of RNA sample.Sequencing can provide transcriptome profile, for example, transcriptome profile includes gene expression change and RNA splicing change.

[0025] The method may be a method of targeted sequencing of full-length transcripts, non-full-length transcripts, or any genomic fragment.

[0026] The use of the words "a" or "an" when used in conjunction with the term "comprising" in the claims and / or specification may mean "one," but is not inconsistent with the meaning of "one or more," "at least one," and "one or more." The word "about" means ±5% of the specified value.

[0027] It is contemplated that any method or composition described herein can be implemented with respect to any other method or composition described herein. Other objects, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while illustrating certain aspects of the present disclosure, are provided by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0028] The following drawings form part of the present specification, and are included to further demonstrate certain aspects of the present disclosure. The present disclosure may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the detailed description of specific embodiments presented herein. [Figure 1]Figures 1A-1B. Schematic of TEQUILA-seq. (Figure 1A) Synthesis of TEQUILA probes. Biotinylated probes are generated by performing nicking endonuclease-triggered strand displacement amplification using oligonucleotides designed to tile the entire region of interest at the desired density as templates. (Figure 1B) Poly(A)+ RNA is converted to full-length cDNA using reverse transcription and template switching reactions, followed by PCR amplification of the cDNA. The cDNA library is hybridized with TEQUILA probes. Targeted cDNA is captured by streptavidin magnetic beads, while off-target cDNA is washed away. The enriched cDNA is amplified by PCR and subjected to nanopore 1D library construction and sequencing. [Diagram 2]Figures 2A-2D. TEQUILA-seq effectively enriches for targeted transcripts. (Figure 2A) Comparison of target enrichment between TEQUILA-seq and IDT's xGen Lockdown capture sequencing method. The top 30 genes with the highest number of mapped reads are shown. Bars are colored blue for "target" genes (including 10 human genes and 3 SIRV genes) and gray for "off-target" genes. Inset: Overall percentage of reads mapped to "target" genes. Percentages (and errors) were calculated as the mean (and standard deviation) of the percentage of reads mapped to all targeted genes in all three replicates in a group. (Figure 2B) Pairwise comparison of Pearson correlations between replicates based on transcript expression. Pairwise Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to measure similarity between replicates within the same method group and between replicates from different method groups. (Figure 2C-2D) Comparison of gene expression of target genes between TEQUILA-seq and IDT's xGen Lockdown capture sequencing (Figure 2C) and the number of isoforms detected for target genes (Figure 2D). Gene abundance (and error) was calculated as the mean (and standard deviation) of log2(CPM + 1) among replicates within a group. Abbreviations: SIRV is Spike-In RNA variant. [Diagram 3]Figures 3A-3B. Quantitative comparison of TEQUILA-seq, direct RNA-seq, and 1D cDNA sequencing. (Figure 3A) Correlation between known concentration of Spike-In and estimated abundance of transcript for 92 Spike-In transcripts. (Figure 3B) Correlation between transcript length and estimated abundance for 15 long SIRVs. Each point represents the average measured transcript expression among replicates in a group (n = 3 per group). Error bars for each point represent the standard deviation of transcript expression among replicates. Points are colored blue for "target" genes and gray for "off-target" genes. Regression lines are calculated and plotted for both "target" and "off-target" genes, respectively, for each method group. [Figure 4] Figure 4. Design of oligo pools for synthesizing TEQUILA probes. All annotated UTRs and coding sequences of targeted genes are collected as input sequences to design oligo pools. The oligo sequences are each 150 nt long and contain a 30 nt universal primer binding sequence (5'-CGAAGAGCCCTATAGTGAGTCGTATTAGAA-3') at the 3' end. The 120 nt 5' end sequence is designed to achieve the desired tiling density (e.g., 0.5x, 1x, 2x) relative to the input sequences of targeted genes. [Diagram 5] Figure 5. Pipeline for TEQUILA-seq data analysis. Nanopore 1D sequencing raw reads are base called using Guppy and aligned to standards by minimap2. ESPRESSO is used for isoform detection and quantification. [Figure 6]Figures 6A-6C. Overview of TEQUILA-seq. (Figures 6A-6B) Schematic of TEQUILA-seq. (Figure 6A) Single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) oligonucleotides are designed to tile the entirety of all annotated exons of a target gene, and the oligonucleotides are synthesized using array-based DNA synthesis technology. Synthetic TEQUILA probes are amplified from ssDNA oligo templates in one pool using nicking endonuclease-triggered strand displacement amplification with a universal primer and biotin-dUTP. (Figure 6B) Full-length cDNA is synthesized from poly(A)+ RNA by reverse transcription and PCR amplification. The TEQUILA probe is then hybridized to the cDNA. During capture and wash, the cDNA-probe hybrids are immobilized on streptavidin magnetic beads, while unbound cDNA is washed away. The captured cDNA is amplified by PCR and subjected to nanopore 1D library preparation and sequencing. (Figure 6C) Comparison of TEQUILA-seq-based target enrichment vs. xGen Lockdown (IDT)-based target enrichment. The main graph shows the percentage of reads mapped to a given gene for the 30 genes with the most mapped reads (mean and standard deviation, n = 3 replicates per method). [Figure 7]Figures 7A-7C. Sensitive and quantitative transcript detection using TEQUILA-seq. (Figure 7A) TEQUILA probes were synthesized for 46 synthetic transcripts from the External RNA Controls Consortium (ERCC). Detection of target gene transcript isoforms was compared between standard nanopore 1D cDNA sequencing, direct RNA sequencing, and TEQUILA-seq performed for 4, 8, or 48 hours. Correlation between Spike-In concentration and estimated abundance for 92 ERCC Spike-In transcripts is shown. (Figure 7B) TEQUILA probes were synthesized for five long Spike-In RNA variants (long SIRVs). This probe set was applied to RNA from human neuroblastoma cells SH-SY5Y spiked with 15 long SIRVs. Enrichment for longer transcripts was compared between the same method groups as in (a). Correlations between transcript length and measured abundance for 15 long SIRV transcripts are shown. In Figures 7A-7B, points and error bars represent the mean and standard deviation of estimated abundance of individual transcripts (n = 3 replicates per method). Open dots represent undetected transcripts. For each of the methods, Pearson correlation ρ (Figure 7A) and regression lines (Figures 7A-7B) were calculated separately for the targeted and off-target transcripts. The grey areas represent the 95% confidence intervals of the respective regression lines. (Figure 7C) TEQUILA probes were synthesized for 221 human genes encoding splicing factors. TEQUILA-seq of this gene panel was applied to RNA from SH-SY5Y cells. The maintenance of transcript inclusion of alternatively spliced ​​exons within targeted genes was compared between the same methods as in Figure 7A and also with bulk short-read RNA-seq.Correlation between exon inclusion levels measured using short-read and long-read RNA-seq methods for 105 high-confidence exon skipping events (see Methods) in 221 genes encoding splicing factors is shown. Each point represents the exon inclusion level for one exon skipping event measured from comparison of short-read and long-read RNA-seq data (mean, n = 3 replicates per method). [Figure 8-1]Figures 8A-8F. TEQUILA-seq analysis of actionable cancer genes in a large panel of breast cancer cell lines. (Figure 8A) Overview of the gene panel, cell lines, and data processing workflow used for TEQUILA-seq analysis of 468 cancer genes in 40 breast cancer cell lines. (Top left) TEQUILA probes were synthesized for 468 genes interrogated by MSK-IMPACT (Memorial Sloan Kettering - Integrated Mutational Profiling of Actionable Cancer Targets), an FDA-approved diagnostic test for DNA-based mutational profiling of actionable cancer targets. (Bottom left) TEQUILA-seq was performed on 40 cell lines from the ATCC breast cancer cell panel. These cell lines represent four distinct histological subtypes: luminal, HER2 enriched, basal A, and basal B. (Right) Computational workflow for processing TEQUILA-seq data. The raw nanopore data are base-called and aligned to the reference genome. Then, transcript isoforms are discovered and quantified from the long-read alignment data. Finally, aberrant transcript isoforms are detected (see Methods). (Figure 8B) Enrichment of 468 target genes in MCF7 cell lines based on the results of TEQUILA-seq and nanopore 1D cDNA sequencing (non-capture control). The top 2,000 genes with the highest measured abundance for each method are shown. (Figure 8C) UMAP clustering analysis (n = 2 per cell line) using isoform ratios of all transcript isoforms across 468 genes in 40 cell lines. Each dot represents one of the cell line replicates. (Figure 8D) Stacked bar graph showing the transcript isoform ratios of DNMT3B identified by TEQUILA-seq in 40 cell lines.Red bars: isoform of interest (ENST00000348286); dark blue bars: canonical isoform (ENST00000328111); lighter blue bars: the three most abundant alternative DNMT3B isoforms; grey bars: the remaining DNMT3B isoforms. (FIG. 8E) Protein and transcript isoform structures of DNMT3B. (Top) Annotation of domains of DNMT3B for the protein isoform encoded by the transcript isoform of interest and the canonical transcript isoform. PWWP is proline-tryptophan-tryptophan-proline domain; ADD is ATRX-DNMT3-DNMT3 L-type zinc finger domain; MTase is methyltransferase domain. (Bottom) Transcript structures of DNMT3B for the isoform of interest, the canonical isoform, and the three most abundant alternative isoforms. Boxes: exons. Linear segments: introns. (FIG. 8F) Violin plot showing the distribution of isoform ratios (median, interquartile range) for isoforms of interest of DNMT3B in various histological subtypes of breast cancer. Each point represents the isoform ratio in replicates of a given cell line (n=2 per cell line). [Figure 8-2] See description of Figure 8-1. [Figure 9-1]Figures 9A-9F. Tumor suppressor genes are enriched for aberrant tumor transcript isoforms targeted by nonsense-mediated decay (NMD). TEQUILA-seq data was used to identify tumor aberrant transcript isoforms, defined as alternative transcript isoforms present at significantly elevated ratios in at least one but no more than four breast cancer cell lines. (Figure 9A) Stacked bar chart showing the number of annotated and novel tumor aberrant isoforms identified across 40 breast cancer cell lines (see Methods). (Figure 9B) Comparison of tumor aberrant transcript isoforms with canonical transcript isoforms for the corresponding genes. Pie charts show the distribution of alternative splicing (AS) events associated with identified tumor aberrant isoforms. Numbers in brackets are the number of tumor aberrant isoforms associated with each category of AS events. (FIG. 9C) Stacked bar graphs showing transcript isoform abundance (top panel) and isoform ratios (bottom panel) of TP53 discovered by TEQUILA-seq across 40 breast cancer cell lines. Red bars: isoforms of interest (ESPRESSO:chr17:1864:802, ESPRESSO:chr17:1864:391); dark blue bars: canonical isoform (ENST00000269305); lighter blue bars: the other three most abundant TP53 isoforms; grey bars: remaining TP53 isoforms. (FIG. 9D) TP53 transcript isoform structure, including the isoforms of interest (ESPRESSO:chr17:1864:802, ESPRESSO:chr17:1864:391), the canonical isoform (ENST00000269305), and the three other most abundant TP53 isoforms. Boxes: exons. Linear segments: introns. Red octagons: premature stop codons. (FIG. 9E) Stacked bar graph showing the percentage of 468 cancer genes with aberrant isoforms in tumors targeted by NMD.Genes were categorized as tumor suppressor genes (TSGs), oncogenes (OGs), or "other" according to their annotation. P-value: two-tailed Fisher's exact test. (Figure 9F) Boxplot (median, interquartile range) with individual data points showing the percentage of genes with abnormal isoforms in tumors targeted by NMD out of all 468 genes detected in a given breast cancer cell line (mean, n = 2 replicates). P-value: two-tailed paired Wilcoxon test. [Figure 9-2] See description of Figure 9-1. [Figure 10] Figure 10. Pairwise comparison of estimated abundances for target gene transcript isoforms between TEQUILA-seq and xGen Lockdown-seq libraries. TEQUILA and xGen Lockdown probes were generated against a small test panel of 10 brain genes. Both probe sets were applied to the same sample of human brain cDNA. Nanopore 1D sequencing data (n = 3 experimental replicates per probe set) were generated at equivalent sequencing depth. In each pairwise comparison, target gene transcripts with CPM > 0 in at least one library were included in the plot and used to calculate Pearson correlations. [Figure 11] Figure 11. Estimated abundance of transcript isoforms of 10 targeted brain genes among TEQUILA-seq, xGen Lockdown-seq, and nanopore 1D cDNA sequencing libraries (non-capture control). Each bar shows the measured abundance for a given gene (mean and standard deviation, n = 3 experimental replicates per probe set). [Figure 12]Figure 12. Enrichment of 468 actionable cancer genes in breast cancer cell lines HCC1806, MDA-MB-157, AU-565, and MCF7 based on TEQUILA-seq and nanopore 1D cDNA sequencing (non-capture control) results. For each cell line, TEQUILA-seq libraries and non-capture control libraries were prepared from the same biological replicate. Each bar indicates the percentage of mapped reads from all 468 cancer genes. [Figure 13]13A-13C. An FGFR2 isoform with mutually exclusive exon 9 is the predominant splice isoform in basal B breast cancer cell lines. (FIG. 13A) Stacked bar graph showing the proportion of FGFR2 transcript isoforms identified by TEQUILA-seq in 40 cell lines. Red bars: isoform of interest (ENST00000358487); dark blue bars: canonical isoform (ENST00000457416); lighter blue bars: the other three most abundant FGFR2 isoforms; grey bars: remaining FGFR2 isoforms. (FIG. 13B) Structure of FGFR2 protein and transcript isoforms. (Top) Annotation of domains of FGFR2 for protein isoforms encoded by transcript isoforms of interest and canonical transcript isoforms. Immunoglobulin loop domains (Ig-I, Ig-II, and Ig-III), transmembrane domains (TM), and tyrosine kinase domains (TK) are shown. (Bottom) Transcript structures of FGFR2 for the isoform of interest (ENST00000358487), the canonical isoform (ENST00000457416), and the three other most abundant isoforms. Boxes: exons. Linear segments: introns. (Figure 13C) Violin plots showing the distribution of isoform ratios (median, interquartile range) for the isoforms of interest of FGFR2 in various histological subtypes of breast cancer. Each point represents the isoform ratio in a given cell line replicate (n = 2 per cell line). [Figure 14]14A-14C. A SESN1 isoform with a distal alternative first exon is the predominant splice isoform in basal B breast cancer cell lines. (FIG. 14A) Stacked bar graph showing the ratio of SESN1 transcript isoforms identified by TEQUILA-seq in 40 cell lines. Red bars: isoform of interest (ENST00000436639); dark blue bars: annotated protein-encoding isoform with the highest average ratio (ENST00000356644, as reference); lighter blue bars: the other three most abundant SESN1 isoforms; grey bars: remaining SESN1 isoforms. (FIG. 14B) Structure of SESN1 protein and transcript isoforms. (Top) Annotation of domains of SESN1 for protein isoforms encoded by transcript isoforms of interest and reference transcript isoforms. The N-terminal domain (NTD) and C-terminal domain (CTD) are shown. (Bottom) Transcript structure of SESN1 for the isoform of interest (ENST00000436639), the reference isoform (ENST00000356644), and the three other most abundant isoforms. Boxes: exons. Linear segments: introns. (Figure 14C) Violin plot showing the distribution of isoform ratios (median, interquartile range) for the isoforms of interest of SESN1 in various histological subtypes of breast cancer. Each point represents the isoform ratio in a given cell line replicate (n = 2 per cell line). [Figure 15]Figure 15. Identification of aberrant tumor transcript isoforms across 40 breast cancer cell lines. Stacked bar graphs show the number of "cell line enriched" isoforms, defined as the number of transcript isoforms that had enriched usage in the cell line (see Methods), as a function of the corresponding number of enriched cell lines. "Tumor aberrant" transcript isoforms are cell line enriched isoforms that showed enriched usage in at least one but no more than four cell lines (≦10% of all 40 cell lines, darker). [Figure 16] Figures 16A-16B. Confirmation of splice site-disrupting mutations resulting in TP53 splice variants in HCC1599 cell lines. (Figure 146) RT-PCR validation of splice variants involving exon 6 and exon 7 of TP53 in HCC1599 and HCC1806 (control) cell lines. Forward and reverse primers are designed to anneal to exon 6 and exon 7, respectively. Canonical splicing of exon 6 and exon 7 corresponds to a 121 bp band. The 689 bp band is the result of retention of intron 6. The 170 bp band is the result of selective utilization of a cryptic 3' splice site within intron 6. (Figure 16B) Sanger sequencing identifies a 3' splice site mutation (A>T) in intron 6 of TP53 in HCC1599. The results of sequencing the antisense strand of TP53 gDNA amplicon from HCC1599 cell line and HCC1806 (control) cell line, as well as the results of sequencing the TP53 cDNA amplicon from HCC1599 cell line are shown. HCC1806 has a wild-type 3' splice site of dinucleotide AG, while HCC1599 has a mutated 3' splice site of dinucleotide TG. [Figure 17]Figures 17A-17D. A novel aberrant NOTCH1 isoform resulting from a structural deletion is the predominant transcript isoform in MDA-MB-157 cell line. (Figure 17A) Stacked bar graphs showing the relative abundance (top panel) and ratio (bottom panel) of NOTCH1 transcript isoforms identified by TEQUILA-seq in 40 cell lines. Red bars: isoform of interest (ESPRESSO:chr9:9147:301); dark blue bars: canonical isoform (ENST00000651671); lighter blue bars: the other three most abundant NOTCH1 isoforms; grey bars: remaining NOTCH1 isoforms. (FIG. 17B) Structures of NOTCH1 transcript isoforms, including the isoform of interest (ESPRESSO:chr9:9147:301), the canonical isoform (ENST00000651671), and the three other most abundant NOTCH1 isoforms. Boxes: exons. Linear segments: introns. (FIG. 17C) RT-PCR validation of the splice variant with exon junction between exon 1 and exon 28 of NOTCH1 in MDA-MB-157 and HCC1395 (control) cell lines. The forward and reverse primers are designed to anneal to exon 1 and exon 28, respectively. The 135 bp band unique to MDA-MB-157 is due to an intragenic genomic deletion within NOTCH1. (FIG. 17D) Sanger sequencing identifies a genomic deletion of approximately 41.5 kb in MDA-MB-157. Sequencing results of the sense strand of NOTCH1 gDNA amplicon from MDA-MB-157 are shown. The deletion breakpoints are located in intron 1 and intron 27 of NOTCH1. [Figure 18]18A-18D. A novel aberrant RB1 isoform resulting from a genomic deletion including exon 22 is the predominant transcript isoform in HCC1937 cell line. (FIG. 18A) Stacked bar graphs showing the relative abundance (upper panel) and ratio (lower panel) of RB1 transcript isoforms identified by TEQUILA-seq in 40 cell lines. Red bar: isoform of interest (ESPRESSO:chr13:2429:105); dark blue bar: canonical isoform (ENST00000267163); lighter blue bar: other three most abundant RB1 isoforms; grey bar: remaining RB1 isoforms. (FIG. 18B) Structures of RB1 transcript isoforms, including the isoform of interest (ESPRESSO:chr13:2429:105), the canonical isoform (ENST00000267163), and the three other most abundant RB1 isoforms. Boxes: exons. Linear segments: introns. (FIG. 18C) RT-PCR verification of splice variants including exon 21 and exon 23 of RB1 in HCC1937 and HCC1806 (control) cell lines. Forward and reverse primers were designed to anneal to exon 21 and exon 23, respectively. Canonical splicing from exon 21 to exon 23 corresponds to a 283 bp band, which includes exon 22. The 169 bp band unique to HCC1937 is due to a genomic deletion including exon 22 of RB1. (FIG. 18D) Sanger sequencing identifies a 178 bp deletion in HCC1937 that includes exon 22 of RB1. Sequencing results for the antisense strand of the RB1 gDNA amplicon from HCC1937 are shown. The deletion breakpoints are located in intron 21 and intron 22 of RB1. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0029] Detailed Description Over the past decade, short-read RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has been widely used as a standard approach for transcriptome analysis (Stark et al., 2019). However, short-read RNA-seq is limited in its ability to elucidate full-length transcript isoforms and complex RNA processing events due to its read length (Park et al., 2018). In contrast, long-read sequencing platforms, such as those from Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) and Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), are capable of generating reads longer than 10 kb and directly sequencing full-length transcript molecules end-to-end (Amarasinghe et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2021). However, a major limitation of long-read sequencing platforms is that their throughput is several orders of magnitude lower than that of short-read platforms, especially Illumina's (Byrne et al., 2019). This limitation represents a major bottleneck for transcriptome analysis, which requires high sequencing coverage for accurate quantification of transcripts and precise measurement of isoform ratios, as well as sensitive discovery of low-abundance transcripts.

[0030] Targeted sequencing is associated with enrichment of specific sequences of interest, which provides a useful strategy to sufficiently enhance transcript coverage for preselected gene panels. Several approaches have been developed so far for long-read targeted RNA-seq. Singleplex or multiplex long-range RT-PCR amplification followed by long-read sequencing utilizes primer pairs located in terminal exons to amplify target transcripts (Clark et al., 2020). However, this approach may not be able to enrich transcripts with novel alternative first exons or novel alternative final exons, and may not be able to be scaled up to large gene panels due to issues of primer cross-reactivity and amplification bias. Hybridization capture-based enrichment using biotinylated capture oligos (Mamanova et al., 2010; Karamitros & Magiorkinis, 2018), such as the RNA Capture Long Seq (CLS) method (Lagarde et al., 2017), is an efficient method for long-read targeted RNA-seq. Nevertheless, commercially available synthetic biotinylated capture oligos are expensive and can only be used for a limited number of reactions, making the cost per sample for single target capture very high. Sheynkman et al. recently described another hybridization capture-based approach, which uses biotinylated capture oligos synthesized directly from open reading frame (ORF) clones (Sheynkman et al., 2020). Nevertheless, accessing and handling the human ORFeome library is resource-intensive and time-consuming.

[0031] The present inventors have developed TEQUILA-seq (Transcript Enrichment and Quantification Utilizing Isothermally Linear-Amplified probes in conjunction with long-read sequencing). One of the key innovations in TEQUILA-seq is that it uses isothermal strand displacement amplification (SDA) triggered by nicking endonuclease (nickase) to synthesize large amounts of biotinylated capture oligos from a pool of non-biotinylated oligo templates that are array-synthesized. This strategy for synthesizing capture oligos makes TEQUILA-seq cost-effective and scalable for large gene panels and large sample sizes. Therefore, TEQUILA can be used to generate a large pool of capture oligos for any panel of sequence targets of interest, with substantial cost savings (at least >200-fold and >10,000-fold) compared to commercially available capture oligos or biotinylated probes. To benchmark the performance of TEQUILA-seq, we performed TEQUILA-seq using ONT's platform on a multi-gene panel of synthetic RNA or human mRNA with a wide range of sizes. To illustrate its biomedical utility, we applied TEQUILA-seq to profile the full-length transcript isoforms of 468 actionable cancer genes across a large panel of 40 breast cancer cell lines representing different intrinsic subtypes.

[0032] One of the applications of these probes is to use them to hybridize and capture full-length cDNA for nanopore long-read targeted sequencing.By comparing the results of nanopore long-read targeted sequencing of a 10-gene test panel and Spike-In RNA variants (SIRVs) using TEQUILA probes with those using widely used commercial probes, we demonstrate that TEQUILA probes achieve significant enrichment of transcripts, maintain RNA abundance, and effectively detect and measure low abundance RNA isoforms.Overall, we contemplate that this highly flexible, efficient, and cost-effective biotinylated probe synthesis method will have broad utility for a variety of applications in basic and translational research and clinical diagnostics.

[0033] The TEQUILA probe contemplated in the present invention is preferred and superior to other available probes in that it is specific and does not contain extraneous adapter sequences in its final format. Nickases, such as Nt.BspQI, Nt.BstNBI, Nb.AlwI, and Nt.BsmAI, bind to their recognition sequences in double-stranded DNA substrates. After binding, nickases hydrolyze only one strand of DNA to create site-specific nicks that can act as initiation sites for strand displacement linear amplification. In the present TEQUILA probe synthesis method described herein, the recognition sequence of Nt.BspQI is designed into the universal adapter region. Nickases can cleave the universal adapter sequence from the newly synthesized strand, so that the resulting TEQUILA probe does not have any extra sequence other than the sequence that is complementary to the targeted sequence of interest.

[0034] Furthermore, the method of the present invention reduces the occurrence of probe synthesis errors, which are associated with PCR amplification. In the method of the present invention (i.e., the method for synthesizing TEQUILA probes), when Klenow fragment (3'→5' exo-) DNA polymerase extends the upstream strand, the downstream strand is displaced to single-stranded form, while the nicking site is regenerated by Nt.BspQI. The successively repeated actions of nickase and DNA polymerase linearly amplify one strand of the DNA molecule. Since the newly synthesized TEQUILA probe is always produced from the original oligo template, this greatly reduces the possibility of accumulating amplification errors. In contrast, in PCR-based methods, the probe is synthesized using the template produced in the previous cycle, so that synthesis errors can be exponentially amplified.

[0035] An additional beneficial feature of the present TEQUILA probes described herein is that they contain multiple biotinylated U residues, in contrast to currently available commercial probes that are labeled with a single 5'-biotin moiety.

[0036] Another advantage of the present invention is that the TEQUILA probes of the present application can still be used for hybridization and capture even when the oligos are truncated. In the prior art and in the synthesis of currently available 5' biotinylated probes, oligos are synthesized by adding one base at a time using chemical reactions. Some truncated oligos are inevitably produced, and the 5' biotin modification may be lost. Loss of 5' biotin may also occur when the probe is sheared or degraded during long-term storage. In either case, these probes can hybridize to the targeted sequence, but the streptavidin beads cannot capture the probes that do not have the 5' biotin modification, so the capture efficiency is compromised. In contrast, the TEQUILA probes of the present application incorporate multiple biotinylated UMPs. As a result, even truncated oligos can still be used as probes for hybridization and capture.

[0037] An additional advantage of TEQUILA probes is that they are isothermal and do not require a thermal cycler. The synthesis of TEQUILA probes is an isothermal reaction, which only requires mild conditions for the enzymes (room temperature to 37 degrees). This allows for easy setup for large-scale production of the probes.

[0038] Moreover, the method described herein is very cost-effective. The cost of synthesizing TEQUILA probe is significantly lower (at least 2 orders of magnitude lower) compared to current commercial methods. For example, the cost of purchasing a custom-defined set (IDT) of biotinylated probes for a panel of 200 genes is $9,000 for a total of 16 reactions, which is approximately $562 per capture reaction. In contrast, the cost of a Twist oligo pool for the same panel of 200 genes is $1,820. The Twist oligo pool can be used to generate TEQUILA probes for over 10,000 reactions, which is approximately $0.2 per reaction, or approximately $0.4 per reaction, taking into account the cost of consumables and enzymes for probe synthesis.

[0039] Another beneficial feature of the present invention is the potential for scaling up the production of biotinylated probes. Without wishing to be bound by the following theory, the reaction yield of biotinylated oligos is at least partially dependent on incubation time, dNTP concentration, and half-life of enzyme activity. In previous results, the inventors observed that the probe yield increased with longer incubation time (4 hours vs. 12 hours), indicating the potential for scaling up the process of producing biotinylated probes. EXAMPLES

[0040] II. Working Examples The following examples are included to demonstrate preferred embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the techniques disclosed in the following examples follow representative techniques that the inventors have found to be sufficiently functional for practicing the invention, and thus may be considered to constitute preferred modes for practicing the present embodiment. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate in light of this disclosure that many changes can be made in the specific embodiments disclosed and still obtain similar or similar results without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

[0041] Example 1 – Protocol for TEQUILA probe synthesis The protocol and method for making TEQUILA probe is provided below.As described in this application, the method produces a novel synthetic capture probe.The probe is unique and cost-effective.Combined with long-read RNA-seq, the probe provides full-length coverage and sufficient read depth to facilitate the comprehensive detection and quantification of full-length transcripts, including transcript isoforms derived from alternative splicing of precursor mRNA.

[0042] reagent Reverse complement oligo: TIFF2024543250000003.tif3128 (standard desalination) Biotin-16-aminoallyl-2'-dUTP (TriLink, N-5001) or other types of biotinylated dNTPs that can be incorporated into newly synthesized DNA strands during amplification by DNA polymerase (e.g., biotin-11-dUTP) Deoxynucleotide (dNTP) solution set, 0.1 M dithiothreitol (DTT) T4 gene 32 protein (NEB, M0300S) or other single-stranded DNA binding proteins Klenow fragment (3'→5' exo-) DNA polymerase Nt.BspQI (NEB, R0644S), or other types of nicking endonucleases that cleave only one strand of DNA in a double-stranded DNA substrate. 10x buffer (1 M NaCl, 500 mM Tris-HCl, 100 mM MgCl2) Ethanol (anhydrous) ·RNase-free / DNase-free water ·Agencourt AMPure XP(Beckman, A63881)

[0043] Equipment and Consumables Nuclease-free PCR tubes, 0.2 ml (Eppendorf, Cat. No. 951010006) DNA LoBind tubes, 1.5 ml (Eppendorf, Catalog No. 022431021) Benchtop and mini centrifuges for 1.5 ml and 0.2 ml tubes PCR thermocycler suitable for 0.2 ml tubes and 0.3 ml 96-well plates Pipettors for 1-10 μl, 20 μl, 200 μl, and 1,000 μl Vortex mixer Bioanalyzer or TapeStation (Agilent Technologies) NanoDrop spectrophotometer or Qubit fluorometer (Thermo Scientific)

[0044] Design and synthesis of oligo pools. Our method can be applied to any set of sequences that the user wishes to target. In our current application of TEQUILA probes, we aim to elucidate the complex alternative splicing of genes of interest. Therefore, all annotated UTRs and coding sequences of targeted genes are collected as input sequences to design oligo pools. The oligo sequences are each 150 nt long and contain a 30 nt universal primer binding sequence at the 3' end. TIFF2024543250000004.tif4128. The 120 nt 5' end sequence is designed to achieve the desired tiling density (e.g., 0.5x, 1x, 2x) relative to the input sequence of the targeted gene (Figure 4).

[0045] The designed oligo pool is synthesized by a silicon-based DNA synthesis platform (e.g., from Twist Bioscience). The synthesized oligos are resuspended in TE buffer (10 mM Tris, 0.1 mM EDTA, pH 8.0) and diluted to 2-5 ng / μl. Oligos stored at -20°C are stable for at least 24 months.

[0046] Nickase-induced strand displacement amplification 1. Combine the following components in a PCR tube: TIFF2024543250000005.tif721442. The solution is mixed and centrifuged briefly. 3. Heat the mixture to 95°C for 2 minutes, then slowly (-0.1°C / sec) cool to 4°C. 4. Add the following ingredients to the reaction: TIFF2024543250000006.tif361565. Incubate at 37 degrees for 2 minutes for the first primer extension. 6. Add Nickase to the reaction: TIFF2024543250000007.tif221567. Incubate at 37 degrees for 30 minutes to 16 hours, at 80 degrees for 20 minutes, then hold at 4 degrees. 8. Prepare working AMPure XP beads; resuspend by vortexing. 9. Transfer 50 μl of the reaction to a new 1.5 ml Eppendorf DNA LoBind tube. 10. Add 90 μl (1.8x) resuspended AMPure XP beads and mix by pipetting. 11. Incubate on a Hula mixer (rotator mixer) for 5 minutes at room temperature. 12. Freshly prepare 2 ml of 80% ethanol using nuclease-free water. 13. Spin down the sample and pellet on the magnet. With the tube still on the magnet, remove the supernatant with a pipette. 14. With the tube still on the magnet, wash the beads with 1 ml of freshly prepared 80% ethanol without disturbing the pellet. 15. Use a pipette to aspirate off the 80% ethanol and discard. 16. Repeat steps 14 to 15. 17. Spin the tube down and place back on the magnet. Remove any remaining ethanol with a pipette. Air dry for approximately 30 seconds, being careful not to let the pellet dry to the point where it cracks. 18. Remove the tube from the magnetic rack and resuspend the pellet in 51 μl of nuclease-free water. Incubate at room temperature for 5 minutes. 19. Pellet the beads on the magnet until the eluate is clear and colorless. 20. Aspirate 50 μl of the eluate and keep it in a new 1.5 ml Eppendorf DNA LoBind tube. 21. Measure the concentration by Nanodrop spectrophotometer.

[0047] Example 2 - Results Targeted sequencing of RNA based on probe capture approach has the potential to advance the detection of transcript complexity and transcript abundance for a desired set of genes. However, the cost of commercially available probes remains prohibitive, preventing the application of the method to tests that require processing a large number of samples. To this end, the inventors have developed a cost-effective probe synthesis strategy, TEQUILA, which can be combined with any high-throughput targeted sequencing approach, including both long-read and short-read sequencing for either DNA or RNA targets. In this disclosure, the inventors describe one such application, nanopore long-read targeted sequencing, which illustrates the utility of the technology in terms of capture efficiency, dynamic range, sensitivity, and accuracy. The goal of applying TEQUILA to long-read targeted sequencing of RNA is to enhance the detection and quantification of full-length isoforms for a selected set of genes at a desired sequencing depth in a single assay.

[0048] TEQUILA-seq workflow. The TEQUILA-seq platform utilizes biotinylated TEQUILA probes (synthesized using the present TEQUILA synthesis method described herein) to capture cDNA sequences for long-read targeted sequencing. Specifically, to synthesize TEQUILA probes, a pool of oligos is designed to tile the entire annotated exon sequence for the gene of interest. Nickase-triggered strand displacement amplification is then performed on the pooled oligos using a universal primer in the presence of biotin-dUTP (Figure 1A). The TEQUILA-seq workflow consists of the following steps (Figure 1B): A full-length cDNA library from poly(A)+RNA is prepared by reverse transcription and PCR preamplification. The purified TEQUILA probe is hybridized to the cDNA library. The hybrids of the targeted cDNA and probe are immobilized on streptavidin magnetic beads, while the non-targeted cDNA is washed away. The enriched cDNA is further amplified by PCR and subjected to nanopore 1D library construction and sequencing. The resulting raw reads are base called using Guppy and aligned to standards by minimap (Sun et al., 2018). Finally, a bioinformatics program, ESPRESSO (manuscript in preparation), is used for isoform detection and quantification (Figure 5).

[0049] TEQUILA-seq effectively enriches targeted transcripts. To evaluate the performance of TEQUILA-seq, we designed a gene test panel consisting of 10 genes expressed in the brain: HTT, MAPT, RBfox1, NRXN1, NUMB, DAB1, Grin1, Scn8a, PSD95, and ApoER2. These genes were selected based on their reported long transcript length, complex alternative splicing patterns, or specific RNA isoforms indicative of physiological or pathological conditions in the human brain. We intend to use this panel to test the ability of TEQUILA-seq to capture extremely long transcripts. For each of these 10 genes, the longest annotated isoforms range from 3,647 to 13,481 nt. Of the 10 genes, 8 genes have 3'UTR sequences of >2,500 nt, with the longest being 5,435 nt.

[0050] To perform a benchmark test, we compared the performance of TEQUILA-seq with the commercial standard xGen Lockdown probe-based capture sequencing (IDT) (Figure 2A). We applied both methods to the same human brain total RNA sample pooled from multiple donors. Both TEQUILA-seq and xGen Lockdown probes were designed with 1X tiling density for 10 genes. Whole-transcriptome 1D cDNA sequencing, a standard method without capture enrichment, was performed as a control (non-capture control). Three technical replicates generated for each of the three methods yielded similar numbers of raw nanopore sequencing reads.

[0051] These findings indicated that TEQUILA-seq had comparable performance to xGEN Lockdown capture sequencing in enriching targeted transcripts. Both methods yielded approximately 85% on-target rate and had similar enrichment folds (approximately 280x-fold). In terms of capture specificity, all 10 genes of interest were highly enriched in both methods, and their ranking by detected abundance was largely consistent (Figure 2A). To assess reproducibility, we performed pairwise comparisons by calculating the degree of similarity in transcript expression between the three replicates of each method. The technical replicates of TEQUILA-seq and xGEN Lockdown capture sequencing were statistically indistinguishable (Figure 2B). Compared to the non-capture control, where some of the genes of interest were only detected due to insufficient depth, both TEQUILA-seq and xGen Lockdown capture sequencing were able to enrich for all 10 genes and achieve similar fold enrichment for each individual gene at both the gene and isoform levels (Figures 2C-2D).

[0052] Overall, we demonstrated that TEQUILA-seq yielded comparable capture efficiency, specificity, and reproducibility compared to widely used commercial methods.

[0053] Transcript characterization and quantification. We systematically evaluated the ability of TEQUILA-seq to characterize and quantify transcripts by utilizing the Synthetic Spike-In RNA Variants (SIRV) Set 4 (SIRV Set 4, Lexogen). Two groups of artificial genes in SIRV Set 4 were used to evaluate different aspects of sequencing performance: (1) the External RNA Controls Consortium (ERCC) mixture, consisting of 92 non-isoform ERCC transcripts with unique sequence identities at concentrations spanning six orders of magnitude, was used to evaluate the accuracy of quantification; and (2) the Long SIRV, containing 15 transcripts with sizes ranging from 4,000 to 12,000 nt, was used to evaluate the size coverage of the method.

[0054] TEQUILA-seq probes were synthesized for 46 transcripts in two subgroups of the ERCC module and 5 transcripts covering all designed sizes from the long SIRV module. The remaining transcripts without probes were treated as off-target controls. A total of 5 pg of SIRV Set 4 RNA was added to 200 ng of total RNA isolated from the neuroblastoma cell line SH-5YSY. For comparison, we performed whole-transcriptome 1D cDNA-seq and whole-transcriptome TEQUILA-seq using the above-mentioned RNA mixtures, with three replicates per method. Three replicates of direct RNA-seq data were also generated from a mixture of 500 ng of SH-5YSY poly(A)+RNA and 5 ng of SIRV Set 4 RNA. To evaluate the relationship between sequencing depth and capture quantitation in TEQUILA-seq, we also generated TEQUILA-seq data series with sequencing times of 4 h, 8 h, and 48 h.

[0055] To evaluate the quantitative accuracy of gene abundance, we compared the quantification of ERCC transcripts between TEQUILA-seq, direct RNA-seq, and 1D cDNA-seq (Figures 3A-3B). TEQUILA-seq enriched targeted ERCC transcripts at concentrations as low as 0.0625 attomoles / μl. In comparison, the lowest concentration of ERCC transcripts we were able to detect consistently across replicates in direct RNA-seq and 1D cDNA-seq controls was approximately 10 attomoles / μl. In addition, TEQUILA-seq maintained linear quantification of the abundance of ERCC standards and provided a more accurate measure of targeted ERCC transcripts (Pearson correlation coefficient r ≧ 0.95) compared to direct RNA-seq (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.79) or 1D cDNA-seq (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.93) (Figure 3A). TEQUILA-seq measurements of off-target ERCC transcripts were less accurate (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.76-0.87) than 1D cDNA-seq measurements (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.93), consistent with the carryover nature of nonspecific transcripts. Detection of targeted ERCC transcripts by TEQUILA-seq improved slightly with longer sequencing times (Figure 3A). A 48-hour TEQUILA-seq run generated an average of 10M raw reads, which was 6-8x higher than data generated by a 4-hour sequencing run (average 1.2M reads) and an 8-hour sequencing run (average 1.6M reads). However, the precision of the measurements did not significantly increase with run time (Pearson correlation coefficient r = 0.95 for 4- or 8-hour TEQUILA-seq vs. r = 0.97 for 48-hour TEQUILA-seq), indicating that TEQUILA-seq, with its relatively shallow overall sequencing depth, remains quantitative in terms of transcript abundance.

[0056] To evaluate the ability of TEQUILA-seq to maintain measurement accuracy for long transcripts, we compared the correlation between transcript length and detected abundance by analyzing the long SIRV module. Equal abundance of targeted long SIRV transcripts at each designed length was well maintained in the TEQUILA-seq data (Figure 3B).

[0057] Example 3 – Materials and Methods Cell lines. SH-SY5Y (ATCC, #CRL-2266), a cell line derived from human neuroblastoma, was cultured in DMEM / F-12 (Gibco, #11330032) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Corning, #45000-734) and 100 U / ml penicillin-streptomycin (Gibco, #15140122). SH-SY5Y cultures were maintained in a humidified chamber at 37°C and 5% CO2. Cell lines were confirmed by short tandem repeat analysis and tested for mycoplasma-free status.

[0058] RNA extraction and preparation. Synthetic SIRV (Lexogen, #025.03 and #141.01) was aliquoted (5 ng per tube) upon arrival. One aliquot was further diluted 1:1000 to 5 pg / μl. RNA purity and individual concentrations of SIRV were verified by the manufacturer. Normal human brain total RNA (50 μg; Clontech, Cat. No. 636530, Lot No. 2006022) was isolated from pooled tissues of multiple donors as indicated by the manufacturer. SH-SY5Y cell line total RNA was extracted using Trizol reagent (Invitrogen, #15596018). RNA concentration and RNA integrity were measured by NanoDrop 2000 spectrophotometer and Agilent 4200 TapeStation, respectively.

[0059] Direct RNA library construction and nanopore sequencing. A total of 20 μg of total RNA was subjected to poly(A)+ RNA selection using Dynabeads mRNA DIRECT purification kit (Invitrogen, #61011) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The resulting approximately 500 ng of poly(A)+ RNA was pooled in one tube with 5 ng of SIRV as input for generating direct RNA libraries. Libraries were generated following the standard protocol for SQK-RNA002, including the optional reverse transcription step. All libraries were loaded into an R9.4.1 flow cell and sequenced on a MinION / GridION instrument (Oxford Nanopore Technologies).

[0060] cDNA synthesis. Following the protocol for SMART-seq2 with some modifications, 200 ng of total RNA was used as template for cDNA synthesis along with 5 pg of SIRV. Reverse transcription and template switching reactions were performed with Maxima H minus reverse transcriptase (Thermo Scientific, #EP0751) under the following conditions: 42°C for 90 min, 85°C for 5 min. PCR amplification of first-strand cDNA using KAPA HiFi ReadyMix (KAPA Biosystems, #KK2602) was performed by incubating as follows: 95°C for 3 min, followed by 11 cycles of (98°C for 20 s, 67°C for 20 s, 72°C for 5 min), and a final extension at 72°C for 8 min. PCR products were purified using 0.8x the amount of SPRIselect beads (Beckman Coulter, #B23318). Amplified cDNA was measured by Qubit dsDNA HS assay and HS D5000 ScreenTape assay on an Agilent 4200 TapeStation.

[0061] 1D Library Construction and Nanopore Sequencing. 1D nanopore libraries were constructed using 1 μg of amplified cDNA following the standard protocol for SQK-LSK109. Briefly, the cDNA products were end-repaired and dA-tailed using NEBNext Ultra II End Repair / dA Tailing Module (NEB, # E7546) by incubating at 20°C for 20 min and at 65°C for 20 min. The end-prepared cDNA was purified using 1x volume of AMPure XP beads and eluted in 60 μl of nuclease-free water. Adapter ligation was performed at room temperature for 10 min by using NEBNext Quick T4 DNA Ligase (NEB, # E6056). After ligation, the library was purified using 0.45x volume of AMPure XP beads and Short Fragment Buffer to equally enrich all fragments. The final library was loaded into an R9.4.1 flow cell and sequenced for the desired time on a MinION / GridION instrument (Oxford Nanopore Technologies).

[0062] Synthesis of IDT capture probes. IDT Lockdown probes were designed and synthesized using the Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) oligo synthesis service. The probes are 120 nt 5'-biotinylated oligos with a tiling density of 1x, which tile all of the annotated UTRs and coding sequences of the targeted genes.

[0063] Hybridization and capture. All steps of the hybridization and capture experiments were adapted from the ORF Capture-Seq protocol and the IDT protocol "Hybridization capture of DNA libraries using xGen Lockdown probes and reagents." Briefly, approximately 500 ng of amplified cDNA was denatured at 95°C for 10 min and then incubated at 65°C for 4–12 h with either 3 pmol of xGen Lockdown probe (IDT) or 100 ng of TEQUILA probe. Next, 50 μl of M-270 streptavidin beads (Invitrogen) were added and incubated at 65°C for 45 min, immediately followed by a series of high temperature and room temperature washes according to the IDT xGen Lockdown protocol. Beads were resuspended in 40 μl of TE buffer.

[0064] Post-capture amplification and nanopore sequencing. On-bead PCR was performed using KAPA HiFi ReadyMix by incubating at 95°C for 3 min, followed by 12 cycles of (98°C for 20 s, 67°C for 20 s, 72°C for 5 min) and a final extension at 72°C for 8 min. PCR products were purified using 0.75x the amount of SPRIselect beads. Amplified cDNA was subjected to 1D library construction and sequencing as described above.

[0065] Nanopore sequencing data preprocessing. Guppy (v4.0.15) from Oxford Nanopore Technologies was used to base call the direct RNA and cDNA data. Reads were aligned to the reference genome hg19 with annotations in GENCODE v34 using minimap2 (v2.17) with parameters "-a -x splice -ub -k 14 -w 4 --secondary=no --junc-bed". Reads corresponding to SIRV were aligned to the SIRV genome from Lexogen (SIRV set1 / SIRV set4) using minimap2 with the same parameters.

[0066] Isoform detection and quantification. Full-length isoforms were detected and quantified from raw read alignment data using ESPRESSO (v1.2.2) (manuscript in preparation), a bioinformatics program that can effectively improve splice junction accuracy and isoform quantification. Transcripts with an average of at least three mapped reads across all replicates of a sample set were retained for downstream analysis.

[0067] Comparison of performance between TEQUILA-seq and IDT xGen Lockdown capture sequencing. Three methods, "TEQUILA-seq capture", "xGen Lockdown (IDT) capture", and "non-capture control", were used to obtain nanopore long-read sequencing results from pooled human brain RNA. Each group has three technical replicates. All replicates were sequenced, aligned, and quantified separately. We calculated pairwise Pearson correlations based on the expression of transcripts from the target genes to measure the reproducibility within each group and the similarity between groups. For each replicate in a group, we calculated the on-target rate as the number of reads that mapped to the target gene in the sam / bam file divided by the total number of reads aligned to the human genome and the SIRV genome. The mean and standard deviation based on the on-target rate of each replicate in a group were then calculated and expressed as the on-target rate for the group as a whole. To reduce the false positive rate in detecting annotated and novel isoforms for the 10 target genes, we set a more stringent filter to consider only transcripts with at least three mapped reads in all replicates (n = 3) in at least one of the "TEQUILA-seq" and "xGen Lockdown (IDT)" groups.

[0068] Evaluation of TEQUILA-seq using the SIRV Set 4 kit. Three methods, "TEQUILA-seq capture", "1D cDNA control", and "Direct RNA control", were used to obtain nanopore long-read sequencing results from SH-5YSY RNA spiked with SIRV Set 4. Each group has three technical replicates. All replicates were sequenced, aligned, and quantified separately. To assess whether gene abundance was maintained, we used an ERCC panel and calculated the Pearson correlation between Spike-In concentration and estimated transcript abundance for each of the 46 targeted and 46 off-target genes. To check whether "TEQUILA-seq" has a potential bias for longer transcripts, we calculated the Pearson correlation between transcript length and estimated abundance for each of the 5 targeted long SIRVs and 10 off-target long SIRVs.

[0069] Example 4 – Results Overview of TEQUILA-seq. We developed TEQUILA as a versatile, easy to implement, and cost-effective approach to generate large amounts of biotinylated capture oligos for any gene panel (Figure 6A). First, single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) oligos are designed to tile the entirety of all annotated exons of the target gene, and the oligos are synthesized using array-based DNA synthesis technology. TEQUILA probes are then amplified from ssDNA oligo templates in a pool using nickase-triggered SDA with universal primers and biotin-dUTP. SDA allows isothermal amplification of internally biotinylated oligos by repeated cycles of nicking and extension reactions using a strand-displacing DNA polymerase and a pre-designed nicking site targeted by a nickase. This process allows for the generation of large amounts of capture oligos from the starting template. The resulting pool of TEQUILA probes can be used to capture full-length cDNA molecules of genes of interest. Due to the low cost of the ssDNA oligo pool and the large output of probe synthesis, TEQUILA substantially lowers the setup and per-reaction costs for target capture compared to commercial methods (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2). For example, a custom set of Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) xGen biotinylated oligos for a panel of 6,000 probes costs $13,000 for 16 reactions (approximately $813 / reaction). In contrast, the cost of setting up TEQUILA probe synthesis for the same panel of 6,000 probes is $1,820, and considering the cost of reagents and consumables, this pool can be used to synthesize TEQUILA probes for >10,000 reactions for approximately $0.43 / reaction.

[0070] When combined with long-read RNA-seq, TEQUILA-seq is designed to provide high coverage of full-length transcripts to facilitate comprehensive discovery and accurate quantification of transcript isoforms (Figure 6B). Briefly, full-length cDNA is synthesized from poly(A)+ RNA by reverse transcription and PCR amplification. TEQUILA probes are then hybridized to the cDNA. During capture and wash, the cDNA-probe hybrids are immobilized on streptavidin magnetic beads, while unbound cDNA is washed away. The captured cDNA is further amplified by PCR and subjected to nanopore 1D library preparation and sequencing. Finally, TEQUILA-seq data is analyzed by our software, ESPRESSO, which is designed for robust transcript analysis using error-prone long-read RNA-seq data.

[0071] TEQUILA-seq enriches target transcripts to the same extent as standard commercial approaches. We evaluated the capture efficiency and target enrichment of TEQUILA-seq compared to xGen Lockdown probe-based capture sequencing (hereafter referred to as xGen Lockdown-seq), a commercial standard targeted RNA-seq approach. We first designed a small test panel of 10 brain genes (DAB1, DLG4, GRIN1, HTT, LRP8, MAPT, NRXN1, NUMB, RBFOX1, and SCN8A). These genes were selected because they are known to express long transcripts with complex AS patterns (Vuong et al., 2016; Wade-Martins, 2012; Sathasivam et al., 2013). For this panel, we synthesized TEQUILA probes and ordered xGen Lockdown probes using the same probe sequence at a tiling density of 1x. We applied both probe sets to the same human brain cDNA sample and generated nanopore 1D sequencing data at comparable sequencing depths (n = 3 experimental replicates per probe set). The estimated abundance of transcript isoforms was nearly identical between all of the TEQUILA-seq and xGen Lockdown-seq libraries (Figure 10). When compared to the whole-transcriptome nanopore RNA-seq data (i.e., non-capture control) generated in the same brain cDNA sample, both TEQUILA and xGen Lockdown probes performed equally well in enriching transcripts from a panel of 10 genes. Specifically, both methods achieved an on-target rate of approximately 85% and had similar enrichment folds (approximately 280x) (Figure 6C). Furthermore, both methods yielded nearly similar enrichment folds for each of the target genes (Figure 6C, Figure 11). Taken together, these results demonstrate that TEQUILA-seq achieves comparable performance in capture efficiency to widely used commercial methods.

[0072] TEQUILA-seq significantly enhances detection of target transcripts and maintains quantification of target transcripts. We evaluated how well TEQUILA-seq improves detection of transcript isoforms of target genes by using External RNA Controls Consortium (ERCC) standards. The ERCC standards are 92 synthetic transcripts, each with a unique sequence, and their concentrations span six orders of magnitude (Jiang et al., 2011). We synthesized TEQUILA probes for 46 ERCC transcripts covering the entire concentration range of ERCC. The remaining 46 ERCCs were left untargeted and served as controls. Using TEQUILA-seq, we were able to consistently detect target ERCC transcripts across three replicates (>2 reads per replicate) at concentrations as low as 0.18 amol / μl (Figure 7A). In contrast, a 65.1-fold higher concentration of 11.72 amol / ul was the lowest concentration at which we consistently detected the target ERCC transcript by standard nanopore 1D cDNA sequencing (n = 3 replicates).

[0073] To investigate how the detection sensitivity of TEQUILA-seq varies with sequencing depth, we sequenced TEQUILA-seq libraries prepared from the same ERCC samples for 4 or 8 hours (n = 3 replicates per sequencing time). The 4-hour and 8-hour TEQUILA-seq runs had 6-8 times shallower sequencing depths than the original 48-hour TEQUILA-seq run. Nevertheless, it was still possible to consistently detect the target ERCC transcripts at concentrations as low as 0.18 amol / ul in both the 4-hour and 8-hour TEQUILA-seq runs. Moreover, even at low sequencing depths, the estimated abundances of the target ERCC transcripts in TEQUILA-seq libraries were highly correlated with their initial Spike-In concentrations (Pearson correlation 0.97 for 48 h TEQUILA-seq and 0.95 for 8 h and 4 h TEQUILA-seq). In comparison, we obtained much lower Pearson correlation values ​​for 1D cDNA sequencing (0.93) and direct RNA sequencing (0.79) (Figure 7A). These results indicate that the TEQUILA probes enriched all 46 target ERCC transcripts at uniformly elevated levels. In contrast, the estimated abundances of the off-target ERCC transcripts in the same TEQUILA-seq libraries were substantially lower and less correlated with the initial Spike-In concentrations (0.76-0.87). Taken together, these results suggest that TEQUILA-seq greatly enhances detection of target transcripts even for low-abundance transcripts and greatly enhances detection of target transcripts even in samples with shallow sequencing depth.

[0074] We next tested whether the TEQUILA-seq data showed any length-dependent bias. We used the Spike-In RNA Variants (SIRV) set (Paul et al., 2016), which contains equimolar concentrations of 15 synthetic transcripts covering transcript lengths from 4,000 to 12,000 nt (hereafter referred to as "long SIRV"). We synthesized TEQUILA probes for the five long SIRV transcripts covering the entire length range of the long SIRV set. We then applied this probe set to RNA from SH-SY5Y, a human neuroblastoma cell line spiked with long SIRV. When using libraries prepared from this sample, all five targeted long SIRV transcripts had nearly identical estimated abundances across all TEQUILA-seq run times (Figure 7B). These results indicate that the TEQUILA probes enrich for targeted transcripts without showing length-dependent bias.

[0075] A potential concern with TEQUILA-seq is that separate transcript isoforms of a given target gene may not be enriched at equal levels, thus altering the relative ratios of transcript isoforms. We reasoned that if TEQUILA probes preserve the ratios of isoforms, the level of transcript inclusion of alternatively spliced ​​exons in the target gene should remain the same with or without target capture. To investigate this, we synthesized TEQUILA probes for 221 human genes that encode splicing factors (Han et al., 2013). These 221 genes are known to undergo extensive AS as a mechanism to regulate splicing factor activity and function (Long & Caceres, 2009; Lareau et al., 2007; Leclair et al., 2020; Dvinge et al., 2016). We applied TEQUILA-seq of this panel of splicing factor genes to RNA from SH-SY5Y cells. For comparison, we also performed bulk short-read RNA-seq on SH-SY5Y cells, as well as standard nanopore 1D cDNA sequencing and direct RNA sequencing.

[0076] Estimated transcript inclusion levels of 105 high-confidence exon skipping events (see Methods) were highly correlated between short-read RNA-seq and TEQUILA-seq data across 221 genes encoding splicing factors (Pearson correlation 0.99 for 48-, 8-, and 4-hour run times) (Figure 7C). Similarly, estimates of transcript inclusion levels using standard nanopore 1D cDNA sequencing or direct RNA sequencing were also highly correlated with estimates generated by short-read RNA-seq (Pearson correlation 0.99). These results demonstrate the ability of TEQUILA-seq to preserve the relative proportions of transcript isoforms of targeted genes.

[0077] TEQUILA-seq of 468 actionable cancer genes in 40 breast cancer cell lines. To illustrate the biomedical utility of TEQUILA-seq, we performed TEQUILA-seq analysis of actionable cancer genes in a large panel of breast cancer cell lines. We synthesized TEQUILA probes for 468 genes interrogated by MSK-IMPACT, an FDA-approved diagnostic test for DNA-based mutational profiling of actionable cancer targets (Cheng et al., 2015; Fiala et al., 2021) (Figure 8A, Supplementary Table 3). Because alternative isoform diversity is widespread in breast cancer transcriptomes (Bonnal et al., 2020; Veiga et al., 2022), we hypothesized that TEQUILA-seq analysis could uncover RNA-associated mechanisms and novel aberrant transcript isoforms in breast cancer. We analyzed 40 breast cancer cell lines from the ATCC breast cancer cell panel that represent four distinct intrinsic subtypes: luminal, HER2 enriched, basal A, and basal B (Figure 8A).

[0078] We first assessed the extent to which TEQUILA probes could enrich gene transcripts in this large panel of 468 genes. To this end, we performed TEQUILA-seq and nanopore 1D cDNA sequencing (as a non-capture control) on four breast cancer cell lines: MCF7, HCC1806, MDA-MB-157, and AU-565 (Figure 8B and Figure 12). The on-target rates of the 468 genes in the TEQUILA-seq data ranged from 62.8% to 71.4%, compared to 2.9% to 3.6% in the non-capture control, demonstrating an average of approximately 20-fold enrichment. We then applied TEQUILA-seq to all 40 breast cancer cell lines, with two experimental replicates per cell line, and obtained on-target rates ranging from 62.3% to 73.7% across the cell lines. Of the 468 genes, 462 were detected (CPM ≥ 1) in at least one sample (98.7%). We discovered 3,122 annotated and 25,519 novel transcript isoforms of cancer genes across the full TEQUILA-seq dataset in 40 cell lines. Although novel transcript isoforms were more abundant than annotated transcript isoforms, the majority of reads that mapped to those genes (79.4% on average across all samples) were derived from annotated transcript isoforms.

[0079] Clustering analysis using isoform ratios of cancer genes revealed two major clusters: cell lines annotated as luminal and HER2-enriched subtypes clustered together, whereas cell lines annotated as basal A and basal B subtypes clustered together (Figure 8C). Some cell lines that were outliers were also observed. For example, cell line pairs MDA-MB-453 and MDA-kb2, and AU-565 and SK-BR-3, respectively, clustered together as outliers, reflecting their similar origins (Wilson et al., 2002; Neve et al., 2006). Despite its annotation as a basal B subtype, the DU4755 cell line clustered with luminal and HER2-enriched subtypes, which may reflect the controversy surrounding its subtype classification (Dai et al., 2017; Lehmann et al., 2011).

[0080] We next sought to determine the ratio of transcript isoforms associated with the various intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer (luminal, HER-enriched, basal A, basal B) in 40 breast cancer cell lines (see Methods). For each intrinsic subtype, we compared the average ratio of transcript isoforms between the cell line associated with the subtype and all other cell lines. At FDR ≤ 0.05, we identified 54 transcript isoforms associated with breast cancer subtypes in 50 genes (Supplementary Table 1). As an example, DNMT3B encodes a de novo DNA methyltransferase (Okano et al., 1999; Rhee et al., 2002). These results are selectively revealing. Compared to the canonical transcript isoform (ENST00000328111), three exons (exon 10, exon 21, and exon 22) were skipped in the alternative transcript isoform. Skipping of exon 21 and exon 22 disrupts the C-terminal catalytic domain; the encoded protein isoform is enzymatically inactive (Kastenhuber & Lowe, 2017). In summary, TEQUILA-seq identified subtype-associated transcript isoforms of DNMT3B that may have a profound effect on DNA methylation in the basal B subtype of breast cancer. Two further examples of subtype-associated transcript isoforms are shown for FGFR2 (Hafner et al., 2019) (Figures 13A-13C) and for SESN1 (Figures 14A-14C). In addition to identifying subtype-associated transcript isoforms, we also used TEQUILA-seq data to identify "tumor aberrant" transcript isoforms, which we define as alternative transcript isoforms that are present at significantly elevated ratios in at least one and no more than four (i.e., ≦10%) breast cancer cell lines (Methods).In total, we identified 635 aberrant transcript isoforms from 256 genes, with 66.8% being novel transcript isoforms (Figure 9A, Figure 15). By comparing the aberrant transcript isoforms with the canonical transcript isoforms of the corresponding genes, we found that transcript isoforms resulting from complex or combined AS events (two types of AS events that do not belong to the seven categories) accounted for the majority of aberrant transcript isoforms (69.1%) (Figure 9B). Considering the difficulty of analyzing complex or combined AS events by short-read RNA-seq (Park et al., 2018), these results highlight the advantage of investigating the transcripts of actionable cancer genes by long-read RNA-seq.

[0081] NMD targeting of aberrant transcript isoforms is a common mechanism for inactivating tumor suppressor genes. Using TEQUILA-seq data, we identified numerous novel aberrant transcript isoforms in widely studied cancer genes. The tumor suppressor TP53 encodes a transcription factor that is involved in regulating diverse cellular processes, such as cell cycle control, DNA repair, apoptosis, metabolism, and cellular senescence (Kastenhuber & Lowe, 2017; Hafner et al., 2019). We found a novel aberrant transcript isoform of TP53 (ESPRESSO: chr17:1864:802) as the predominant isoform in HCC1599 cell line (Figure 9C). The transcript isoform contains a 568 nt retained intron compared to the canonical transcript isoform of TP53 (Figure 9D). The retained intron may introduce a premature stop codon (PTC) in frame, which may target the transcript isoform for degradation via nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) (Kurosaki et al., 2019). A second, relatively abundant, novel TP53 transcript isoform (ESPRESSO: chr17:1864:391), which uses a novel 3' splice site within the retained intron, was also found in the HCC1599 cell line (Figure 9C). This transcript isoform is also targeted by NMD. Overall, the discovery of multiple transcript isoforms targeted by NMD is consistent with the generally low steady-state gene expression levels of TP53 in HCC1599 as measured by TEQUILA-seq (Figure 9C).

[0082] To elucidate the source of these novel TP53 transcript isoforms, we analyzed whole genome sequencing (WGS) data of HCC1599 obtained from Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE). We found that the HCC1599 cell line harbors a somatic mutation A>T in TP53 following intron 6, and this mutation disrupts a 3' splice site at the 3' end of the retained intron. Because the other allele of TP53 is lost in the tumor genome by loss of heterozygosity (Gandi et al., 2019), all WGS reads across this region contain the somatic mutation A>T. This splice site mutation, and the resulting transcript, were further confirmed by RT-PCR and Sanger sequencing (Figures 16A-16B). In summary, TEQUILA-seq uncovered novel aberrant TP53 transcript isoforms in HCC1599, which may be associated with TP53 inactivation in this cell line.

[0083] In addition, we also found aberrant transcript isoforms of several other genes encoding tumor suppressors, such as NOTCH1 and RB1. A novel aberrant transcript isoform of NOTCH1 (ESPRESSO: chr9:9147:301) was found as the predominant transcript isoform in MDA-MB-157 cell line. The transcript isoform is missing the segment spanning exon 2 to exon 27 compared to the canonical transcript isoform of NOTCH1 (Figures 17A-17D). We found a novel aberrant transcript isoform of RB1 (ESPRESSO: chr13:2429:105) in HCC1937 cell line, which is missing exon 22 compared to the canonical transcript isoform (Figures 18A-18D). Using RT-PCR and Sanger sequencing, we confirmed that these novel, aberrant transcript isoforms resulted from focal genomic deletions that deleted multiple exons (in NOTCH1) or a single exon (in RB1) from the tumor genome (Figures 17A-17D and 18A-18D).

[0084] The discovery of aberrant transcript isoforms targeted by NMD in TP53 raises an interesting question: does this observation represent an RNA-mediated recurrent mechanism of tumor suppressor gene inactivation in breast cancer? To address this question, we categorized the 468 cancer genes analyzed by TEQUILA-seq into three groups: 196 tumor suppressor genes (TSGs), 179 oncogenes (OGs), and 93 "other" genes. For genes that were expressed in at least 10 of the 40 breast cancer cell lines (i.e., the average CPM of the two repeats is ≧ 1), aberrant transcript isoforms targeted by NMD were significantly more enriched in TSGs (20.9% in TSGs, 9.8% in OGs, and 8.3% in others; Figure 9E). In addition, the percentage of genes with aberrant transcript isoforms targeted by NMD among those detected in each of the 40 breast cancer cell lines was significantly higher for TSGs compared with OGs and other genes (paired two-tailed Wilcoxon test; Figure S4E). These results suggest that the diversity of aberrant selective isoforms associated with NMD may represent a common mechanism for inactivating TSGs in individual tumors.

[0085] Example 5 – Discussion Target capture followed by long-read RNA-seq provides a powerful strategy for performing transcript isoform-focused analysis of preselected gene panels. The strategy leverages the ability of long-read sequencing platforms to sequence full-length transcript molecules end-to-end while avoiding their weaknesses of limited sequencing yield and low transcript coverage. Nevertheless, existing methods for long-read targeted RNA-seq are either expensive (Lagarde et al., 2017) or difficult to set up and perform (Sheynkman et al., 2020). Herein, we provide a novel method for long-read targeted RNA-seq, TEQUILA-seq. The TEQUILA process for synthesizing biotinylated capture oligos is versatile, easy to perform, and cost-effective. Starting non-biotinylated oligo templates can be obtained as array-synthesized oligo pools from various vendors at a reasonable cost. Using nickase-triggered isothermal SDA, the TEQUILA process can generate large amounts of biotinylated capture oligos from limited amounts of starting material, allowing many (>10,000) capture reactions. Once the synthesized strands are released from the universal adaptor sequences by nickases, the TEQUILA probes do not carry any artificial adaptor sequences, but only the complementary sequences to the targeted sequences. Compared to standard commercial approaches, TEQUILA lowers the initial setup costs of target capture and dramatically reduces the cost per reaction by 2-3 orders of magnitude (Supplementary Tables 1 and 2). This cost structure makes it practical to scale up TEQUILA-seq to large cohorts with many biological samples.

[0086] We performed TEQUILA-seq on both synthetic RNA and human mRNA using multiple gene panels ranging in size from a small panel of 10 brain genes to a large panel of 468 actionable cancer genes. Our comprehensive benchmark analysis shows consistently high on-target rates and enrichment folds across analyzed samples and analyzed gene panels. We show that TEQUILA-seq has the ability to substantially improve the detection sensitivity of low abundance transcripts using synthetic RNA with known transcript structure and concentration. At the same time, the estimated abundance of target transcripts based on TEQUILA-seq data was highly correlated with ground truth (Figure 7A). We also show that TEQUILA-seq data does not show length-dependent bias in transcript detection and quantification (Figure 7B). Furthermore, we show that TEQUILA-seq is capable of preserving the ratio of transcript isoforms of target genes by comparing TEQUILA-seq data of human gene panels with short-read deep RNA-seq data in the same sample (Figure 7C). Overall, these results indicate that TEQUILA-seq provides a robust tool for discovering and quantifying transcripts for target genes.

[0087] Targeted sequencing or WGS of tumor DNA is widely used in research and clinical fields (Cheng et al., 2015; Fiala et al., 2021; Chakravarty & Solit, 2021; Staaf et al., 2019). However, dysregulation of RNA levels is widespread in the cancer transcriptome (Pan et al., 2021), and recent studies have demonstrated the utility of transcriptome sequencing to complement cancer genome profiling (Beaubier et al., 2019; Horak, et al., 2021; Shukla et al., 2022). By performing TEQUILA-seq of 468 actionable cancer genes across a large panel of 40 breast cancer cell lines, we discovered numerous known or novel transcript isoforms with potential functional relevance. For example, we found an alternative transcript isoform of DNMT3B, lacking two exons encoding a portion of the C-terminal catalytic domain, that is highly enriched in basal B breast cancer cell lines (Figure 8D, 8F). This finding has implications for epigenetic regulation and DNA methylome in the most aggressive subtype of breast cancer, basal B subtype (Harbeck et al., 2019; Bianchini et al., 2022). We also found novel aberrant transcript isoforms of multiple genes encoding tumor suppressors, such as TP53, NOTCH1, and RB1 (Figure 9D, 9D; Figures 17A-17D, and 18A-18D). Using the full-length transcript information provided by TEQUILA-seq, we can infer the functions of the various isoforms associated with the transcripts and protein products. For example, an aberrant transcript isoform of TP53, discovered in the HCC1599 cell line, can introduce an in-frame PTC and cause degradation of the transcript via the NMD pathway.By extending this analysis to all aberrant transcript isoforms found in the breast cancer dataset, we found that TSGs were significantly more enriched in aberrant transcript isoforms targeted by NMD compared to OGs and other cancer genes (Figures 9E-9F). Thus, TEQUILA-seq analysis reveals a common mechanism for inactivating TSGs in cancer cells, via aberrant selective isoform diversity accompanied by transcript degradation by NMD.

[0088] We contemplate that TEQUILA-seq may facilitate widespread application of long-read targeted RNA-seq in diverse biomedical environments. Herein, we describe the application of TEQUILA-seq to cancer genes as a proof of concept; however, TEQUILA-seq can be applied to any gene panel of interest focused on transcript isoform discovery and quantification. For example, TEQUILA-seq for genes associated with a given category of Mendelian disease can be used for RNA-based genetic diagnosis (Cummings et al., 2017). Similarly, TEQUILA-seq for genes associated with gene fusions of cancer genes can be used to discover actionable fusion transcripts for application in precision oncology (Reeser et al., 2017; Heyer et al., 2019). In addition to targeted RNA-seq, TEQUILA probes can be used for a variety of applications related to targeted DNA sequencing, such as targeted analysis of DNA methylation (Deng et al., 2009; Liu et al., 2020) and targeted analysis of chromatin conformation (Hughes et al., 2014; McCord et al., 2020).

[0089] (Supplementary Table 1) Cost of reagents for synthesizing TEQUILA probes TIFF2024543250000008.tif24672*Cost per capture reaction is calculated assuming that probe produced from one TEQUILA probe synthesis reaction is sufficient for 100 capture reactions (one probe synthesis reaction starting from 2 ng oligo pool template can produce at least 10 μg probe and one capture reaction requires 100 ng TEQUILA probe).

[0090] (Supplementary Table 2) Cost comparison between IDT's xGen Lockdown probes and TEQUILA probes TIFF2024543250000009.tif235126

[0091] (Supplementary Table 3) A panel of 468 actionable genes related to cancer TIFF2024543250000010.tif191144

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[0103] (Supplementary Table 4) TIFF2024543250000022.tif246113

[0104] Example 6 – Materials and Methods Cell lines. Human neuroblastoma cells, SH-SY5Y (ATCC, #CRL-2266), were cultured in DMEM / F-12 (Gibco, #11330032) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Corning, #45000-734) and 100 U / ml penicillin-streptomycin (Gibco, #15140122). SH-SY5Y cells were maintained in a humidified chamber at 37°C with 5% CO2. The SH-SY5Y cell line was confirmed by short tandem repeat analysis and verified to be mycoplasma-free. A panel of 40 breast cancer cell lines was obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA, 30-4500 K™). The cell lines were cultured as recommended by ATCC and confirmed by the supplier.

[0105] RNA extraction and preparation. Spike-In RNA variants (SIRV set 4, Lexogen, #141.01) were aliquoted (5 ng per tube) upon arrival. One aliquot of SIRV was further diluted 1:1000 to 5 pg / μl as the working concentration for reverse transcription. Human brain total RNA (50 μg, Clontech, Cat. No. 636530, Lot No. 2006022) was isolated from pooled tissue of multiple donors as indicated by the manufacturer. Total RNA was extracted from SH-SY5Y cell line and from 40 breast cancer cell lines using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen, #15596018). RNA concentration and RNA integrity were measured using a NanoDrop 2000 spectrophotometer and an Agilent 4200 TapeStation, respectively.

[0106] Verification by RT-PCR and Sanger sequencing of cDNA. Total RNA was treated with RNase-free DNase I by using the TURBO DNA-free kit (Invitrogen, Cat. No. AM1907). cDNA was synthesized from 1 μg of total RNA using reverse transcription primed with oligo(dT)15 following the Maxima H minus reverse transcriptase protocol. Then, PCR was performed in a volume of 20 μl by using first-strand cDNA synthesized from 50 ng of total RNA, 10 μl of KAPA HiFi ReadyMix, and 10 pmol of primer pairs. All primer pairs are listed in Supplementary Table 4. PCR amplification was performed in a Veriti 96-well thermal cycler (Applied Biosystems, Cat. No. 43-757-86) by incubating the mixture at 95°C for 3 min, followed by 26 cycles of (98°C for 20 s, 65°C for 20 s, and 72°C for 45 s) and a final extension at 72°C for 2 min. Amplification products were analyzed by electrophoresis in 2% agarose gels and by D1000 ScreenTape assay on an Agilent 4200 TapeStation. The sequences of splice junctions of transcript isoforms were confirmed by Sanger sequencing of DNA amplicons separated by DNA electrophoresis. Gel extraction was performed using a QIAquick Gel Extraction Kit (Qiagen, Cat. No. 28706X4).

[0107] Genomic DNA isolation and verification by Sanger sequencing. Genomic DNA was isolated using TRIzol reagent (Invitrogen) according to the protocol for DNA isolation from TRIzol. DNA concentration and integrity were measured by a NanoDrop 2000 spectrophotometer and a genomic DNA ScreenTape assay on an Agilent 4200 TapeStation, respectively. PCR was performed in a volume of 50 μl using 50 ng genomic DNA, 25 μl KAPA HiFi ReadyMix, and 20 pmol of primer pairs. All primer pairs are listed in Supplementary Table 4. PCR amplification was performed in a Veriti 96-well thermal cycler (Applied Biosystems, Cat. No. 43-757-86) by incubating the mixture at 95°C for 3 min, followed by 30 cycles of (98°C for 20 s, 65°C for 20 s, and 72°C for 1 min) and a final extension at 72°C for 2 min. The amplified products were separated by electrophoresis in a 1.5% agarose gel, and the bands were purified using a QIAquick Gel Extraction Kit (Qiagen, Cat. No. 28706X4). The sequence of the purified DNA amplicon was confirmed using Sanger sequencing with the same primers used in the PCR.

[0108] Short-read RNA-seq library preparation and sequencing. Short-read sequencing libraries were prepared using 1 μg of total RNA extracted from SH-SY5Y cells along with 25 pg of SIRV Set 4 RNA according to the TruSeq Stranded mRNA (Illumina, Cat. No. 20020595) protocol. All short-read libraries (n = 3) were sequenced on an Illumina NovaSeq 6000 sequencer by 150 bp paired-end sequencing according to the manufacturer's protocol.

[0109] Direct RNA library construction and nanopore sequencing. One 20 μg aliquot of total RNA was subjected to poly(A)+ RNA selection using Dynabeads mRNA DIRECT purification kit (Invitrogen, #61011) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The resulting approximately 500 ng of poly(A)+ RNA was pooled with 5 ng of SIRV as input to generate a direct RNA library. Libraries were generated following ONT's standard protocol for SQK-RNA002, including the optional reverse transcription step. All libraries were mounted in an R9.4.1 flow cell and sequenced on a MinION / GridION instrument (ONT, Oxford, UK).

[0110] Synthesis of full-length cDNA. A 200 ng aliquot of total RNA was used as a template for cDNA synthesis along with 5 pg of SIRV Set 4 RNA. Briefly, reverse transcription and template switching reactions were performed by using Maxima H minus reverse transcriptase (Thermo Scientific, #EP0751) under the following conditions: 90 min at 42°C, followed by 5 min at 85°C. First-strand cDNA was amplified by PCR with KAPA HiFi ReadyMix (KAPA Biosystems, #KK2602) by incubating the mixture as follows: 3 min at 95°C, followed by 11 cycles of (20 s at 98°C, 20 s at 67°C, and 5 min at 72°C), and a final extension at 72°C for 8 min. PCR products were purified using 0.8x the amount of SPRIselect beads (Beckman Coulter, #B23318). Amplified cDNA was measured using the Qubit dsDNA high-sensitivity assay, and the high-sensitivity D5000 ScreenTape assay on an Agilent 4200 TapeStation. Oligo / primer sequences are detailed in Supplementary Table 4.

[0111] 1D Library Construction and Nanopore Sequencing. Nanopore 1D libraries were constructed using 1 μg of amplified cDNA following ONT's standard protocol for SQK-LSK109. Briefly, cDNA products were end-repaired and dA-tailed using NEBNext Ultra II End Repair / dA Tailing Module (NEB, # E7546) by incubating at 20°C for 20 min and at 65°C for 20 min. cDNA was then purified using 1x volume of AMPure XP beads and eluted in 60 μl of nuclease-free water. Adapter ligation was performed at room temperature for 10 min using NEBNext Quick T4 DNA Ligase (NEB, # E6056). After ligation, the library was purified using 0.45x volume of AMPure XP beads and short fragment buffer. The final library was packed into an R9.4.1 flow cell and sequenced on a MinION / GridION instrument.

[0112] Synthesis of capture probes. IDT (Integrated DNA Technologies) Lockdown probes were designed and synthesized for a test panel of 10 brain genes including: HTT, MAPT, RBFOX1, NRXN1, NUMB, DAB1, GRIN1, SCN8A, DLG4, and LRP8. The probes are 120 nt long oligos that are biotinylated at their 5' ends. The probes were designed to tile the entirety of all annotated exons, including UTRs, of the test panel genes at a tiling density of 1x (Supplementary Table 4).

[0113] TEQUILA probes were synthesized in two steps. First, Twist oligo pools (Twist Bioscience) were designed and synthesized for a custom-designed panel of three genes detailed in Supplementary Table 4. The oligos were 150 nt in length and contained a 30 nt universal primer binding sequence at the 3' end. TIFF2024543250000023.tif4128. The remaining 120 nt are designed to tile all annotated exons of the targeted gene, including UTRs, at a tiling density of 1x. The oligo pool was then amplified and biotinylated using nickase-guided linear SDA. Briefly, 2–10 ng of oligo pool as ssDNA template, 5 μl of 10x NEBuffer 3.1, 2 mM DTT, 0.25 μM RC-oligo A 40 μl reaction volume containing TIFF2024543250000024.tif4128, 0.4 mM dTTP, 0.6 mM dATP, 0.6 mM dCTP, 0.6 mM dGTP, and 0.2 mM biotin-dUTP was mixed on ice. The mixture was incubated at 95°C for 2 minutes and then ramped down to 4°C at a rate of 0.1°C / sec. The first strand extension of the primer was carried out at 37°C for 10 minutes using 5 μM ssDNA binding protein (T4 gene 32 protein, NEB, catalog number M0300S) and 0.8 U / μl Klenow fragment (3'-5' exo-) DNA polymerase (NEB, catalog number M0212M). Nickase-induced linear SDA was then performed using 3 nM (0.04 U / μl) Nt.BspQI (NEB, Cat. No. R0644S) for 12–16 h at 37° C. The synthesized probes were purified using 1.8× the amount of AMPure XP beads and quantified by NanoDrop 2000 spectrophotometer.

[0114] Hybridization and capture. All hybridization and capture experiments were performed according to the protocol by IDT (Hybridization capture of DNA libraries using xGen Lockdown probes and reagents). Briefly, approximately 500 ng of amplified cDNA was denatured at 95°C for 10 min, and then it was incubated with either 3 pmol of IDT's xGen Lockdown probe or 100 ng of TEQUILA at 65°C for 12 h. Next, 50 μl of M-270 streptavidin beads (Invitrogen, Cat. No. 65306) was added to the mixture, and the mixture was incubated at 65°C for 45 min. The mixture was then immediately subjected to a series of washes at high temperature and room temperature according to IDT's xGen Lockdown protocol. The resulting bead solution was resuspended in 40 μl of TE buffer.

[0115] Post-capture amplification and nanopore sequencing. On-bead PCR was performed using KAPA HiFi ReadyMix by incubating the streptavidin-bead-captured cDNA as follows: 95°C for 3 min, followed by 12 cycles of (98°C for 20 s, 67°C for 20 s, 72°C for 5 min), and a final extension at 72°C for 8 min. PCR products were purified using 0.7x the amount of SPRIselect beads. Amplified cDNA was subjected to 1D library construction and nanopore sequencing.

[0116] Base calling and alignment of nanopore sequencing data. Base calling of raw nanopore data was performed using Guppy (v4.0.15) in fast mode using the following settings: "guppy_basecaller --input_path raw_data --save_path output_folder -config corresponding_config_file" (community.nanoporetech.com / downloads). Base calling of 1D cDNA sequencing data and TEQUILA-seq data was performed using the config file "dna_r9.4.1_450bps_fast.cfg" and base calling of direct RNA sequencing data was performed using the config file "rna_r9.4.1_70bps_fast.cfg".

[0117] Base-called reads were mapped to either the reference genome GRCh37 / hg19 or Lexogen's SIRV genome (SIRV set 4) using minimap2 (v2.17) with the parameters "-a -x splice -ub -k 14 -w 4 --secondary=no". Specifically, we loaded minimap2 with GENCODE v34 transcript annotations (available on the World Wide Web at "gencodegenes.org / human / release_34lift37.html") when mapping reads to the reference genome GRCh37 / hg19. We loaded SIRV set 4 transcript annotations when mapping reads to the SIRV genome.

[0118] Transcript isoform discovery and quantification. Full-length transcript isoforms were detected and quantified from long-read alignment files using ESPRESSO (v1.2.2) with default settings (github.com / Xinglab / espresso). Specifically, ESPRESSO was used to simultaneously identify and quantify transcript isoforms from the following sets of nanopore RNA-seq data: 1. 1D cDNA sequencing data and targeted sequencing data (IDT probes or TEQUILA probes) for the 10 test genes in human brain cDNA samples (n = 3 per sequencing protocol). 2. Direct RNA sequencing data, 1D cDNA sequencing data, and TEQUILA-seq data for a panel of all 54 SIRV, long SIRV, and ERCC genes in SH-SY5Y cells (sequencing times of 4 h, 8 h, and 48 h) (n = 3 per sequencing protocol). 3. Direct RNA sequencing, 1D cDNA sequencing, and TEQUILA-seq data for a panel of 221 genes encoding splicing factors in SH-SY5Y cells (sequencing times of 4, 8, and 48 hours) (n = 3 per sequencing protocol). 4. TREQUILA-seq data of 468 actionable cancer genes (Supplementary Table 3) in 40 breast cancer cell lines (n = 2 per cell line). 5. 1D cDNA sequencing data (n = 1 per cell line) for four breast cancer cell lines: HCC1806, MDA-MB-157, AU-565, and MCF7.

[0119] Estimated read counts for all of the transcript isoforms identified in a sample (i.e., transcript isoforms with non-zero read counts) were normalized as counts per million (CPM) by dividing the number of reads assigned to a transcript isoform by the total number of reads mapped to the reference genome and multiplying this number by 1 million. The proportion of a given transcript isoform was calculated by dividing the CPM value of the transcript by the CPM value of the corresponding gene (i.e., the sum of the CPM values ​​across all transcripts discovered for that gene).

[0120] Calculation of on-target rate and enrichment ratio. For each sample subjected to target sequencing, we calculated the on-target rate by dividing the number of reads that are mapped to the targeted gene (with a mapping quality score of ≧ 1) by the total number of reads that are aligned to the reference genome (with a mapping quality score of ≧ 1). To characterize the overall on-target rate for a given target enrichment method, we calculated the average and standard deviation of the on-target rate across all replicates associated with the method. Enrichment ratio was calculated by dividing the average on-target rate for a target enrichment method by the average on-target rate across all non-capture control samples.

[0121] Quantification of exon skipping events using short-read and long-read RNA-seq data. We aligned short-read RNA-seq data to the reference genome GRCh37 / hg19 using STAR (v2.6.1d) in two-pass mode with default settings and transcript annotations from GENCODE v34 (on the World Wide Web at gencodegenes.org / human / release_34lift37.html). Exon skipping events were detected and quantified (as "percent spliced ​​in" values, Ψ) from the short-read alignment files using rMATS (v4.1.1) with default settings (Shen et al., 2014).

[0122] For each of the exon skipping events identified from the short-read data, we also calculated a Ψ value based on the long-read data using the following formula: TIFF2024543250000025.tif9128

[0123] where I is the sum of the CPM values ​​for transcripts carrying both exon inclusion junctions associated with the exon skipping event, and S is the sum of the CPM values ​​for transcripts carrying only the exon skipping junction associated with the exon skipping event.

[0124] Detection of high-confidence exon skipping events from short-read RNA-seq data. We identified high-confidence exon skipping events from short-read RNA-seq data based on the following criteria: (1) the average number of short reads spanning both junctions in exon inclusion or the number of short reads supporting the junction in exon skipping is ≥ 10, (2) the ratio between the average number of short reads supporting either junction in exon inclusion is 0.2-5, (3) the average Ψ value of the short reads is 0.01-0.99, and (4) none of the four splice sites associated with the exon skipping event is involved in any other AS event detected from the short-read RNA-seq data.

[0125] Identification of breast cancer subtype-specific transcript isoforms. We used a panel of 40 breast cancer cell lines to attempt to identify breast cancer subtype-specific transcript isoforms. For each breast cancer subtype (luminal, HER2 enriched, basal A, or basal B), we used a two-tailed Student's t-test to compare the average ratio of transcript isoforms between cell lines associated with a given subtype and all other cell lines. We then identified tumor subtype-specific transcript isoforms as those that met the following criteria: (1) an FDR-adjusted p-value based on the Benjamini-Hochberg correction of ≦5%, and (2) the average ratio of the isoform across cell lines of a given subtype was at least 10% greater than the average ratio of the isoform across all other cell lines.

[0126] Identification of abnormal tumor transcript isoforms. We defined "abnormal tumor transcript isoforms" as transcript isoforms that have increased utilization in at least one but not more than four cell lines (≦10% of cell lines) in a panel of 40 breast cancer cell lines. To identify such transcript isoforms, we used the following statistical approach.

[0127] We created an m x 80 contingency table for each gene, consisting of read counts (rounded to the nearest integer) for the m discovered transcript isoforms across 80 TEQUILA-seq samples (2 technical replicates for each of the 40 breast cancer cell lines). We used this matrix to calculate the total expression level of each gene in each sample as the sum of read counts across all transcript isoforms of each gene. We excluded genes that had only one identified isoform or were expressed in only one sample. We also excluded samples from the contingency table if a given gene was not expressed in that sample.

[0128] We then performed a chi-square test for homogeneity (FDR<1%) on the matrix to assess whether the transcript isoform ratio for a given gene was homogeneous across all of the samples examined. Focusing on genes ranked by the chi-square test with FDR<1%, we performed a post-hoc test to identify sample-isoform pairs in which the ratio of the isoform in a given sample was significantly higher than the ratio of the isoform overall across all samples (i.e., the sum of the read counts of the transcript isoform in all samples divided by the sum of the read counts of the gene in all samples is significantly higher) (one-sided binomial test, FDR<1%).

[0129] We then used the transcript isoforms ranked by this post-hoc test to identify cell line and isoform pairs for transcript isoforms that show significantly increased utilization in a given cell line (i.e., referred to as "cell line enriched" isoforms). Specifically, these pairs were required to meet the following criteria: (1) for both replicate samples associated with a given cell line, the transcript isoform had a p-value adjusted using the Benjamini-Hochberg correction of < 1% (post-hoc test), and (2) the proportion of the transcript isoform in both replicate samples was > 10% higher than the proportion of the transcript isoform across all samples.

[0130] Finally, we defined a set of tumor aberrant transcript isoforms based on the following requirements: (1) the transcript isoform shows significantly elevated utilization in at least one and no more than four cell lines (i.e., ≦10% of our breast cancer cell line panel), and (2) the transcript isoform is not the canonical transcript isoform of the corresponding gene. Canonical transcript isoforms for each gene were identified using the Ensembl database (release 100, April 2020). Custom scripts for identifying tumor aberrant transcript isoforms are available at [GitHub link insert].

[0131] Classification of AS events underlying aberrant tumor transcript isoforms. To characterize the RNA processing changes associated with aberrant tumor transcript isoforms, we directly compared the structure of each aberrant tumor transcript isoform to the structure of the canonical transcript isoform for the corresponding gene. Local differences in transcript structure were classified into seven basic AS categories (Park et al., 2018), including: (1) exon skipping, (2) alternative 5' splice site, (3) alternative 3' splice site, (4) mutually exclusive exons, (5) intron retention, (6) alternative first exon, and (7) alternative final exon. Any local differences in transcript structure that could not be classified into one of the seven basic categories were classified as "complex splicing." If the tumor aberrant transcript isoform was found to have multiple AS events compared to the canonical transcript isoform, the isoform was classified as "combined". In comparing the transcript structures, we filtered out tumor aberrant transcript isoforms if they were (i) also the canonical transcript isoform of the corresponding gene, or (ii) only differed at the end of the transcript compared to the canonical transcript isoform. We wrote a custom script (available at "github.com / Xinglab / TEQUILA-seq") that identified structural differences between two transcript isoforms and classified them into separate AS categories.

[0132] Identification of transcripts targeted by NMD. All transcript isoforms identified by ESPRESSO were classified into three categories: (1) transcripts annotated in GENCODE (v34lift37) as encoding "basic" (i.e., full-length) proteins or as targeted by NMD; (2) transcripts annotated in GENCODE but not shown to encode "basic" proteins or as targeted by NMD; and (3) novel transcripts identified by ESPRESSO. For transcripts assigned to category (2) or category (3), we retrieved their sequences by comparing them with the reference genome GRCh37 / hg19 and searched for ORFs. Specifically, we used the longest ORF for a given transcript, which must code for at least 20 amino acids.

[0133] We used the following criteria to identify transcripts with predicted ORFs that could be targets of NMD: (1) the transcript is ≥200 nt in length, (2) the transcript contains at least one splice junction, and (3) the predicted stop codon is ≥50 nt upstream of the last exon-exon junction (i.e., the transcript has a PTC) (Kurosaki et al., 2019).

[0134] Enrichment analysis of tumor aberrant transcript isoforms targeted by NMD for tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) and oncogenes (OGs). We categorized 468 actionable cancer genes as either TSGs or OGs based on annotation by OncoKB (oncokb.org on the World Wide Web) (Chakravarty et al., 2017). Of the 468 genes, 196 were annotated as TSGs, 179 were annotated as OGs, and the remaining 93 genes were assigned to the "other" category, which refers to genes that have context-dependent behavior as either TSGs or OGs and genes with unknown functions in the cancer environment.

[0135] We attempted to test whether tumor aberrant isoforms targeted by NMD are enriched in TSGs compared to OGs. First, we filtered our list of 468 actionable cancer genes for cancer genes that were detected in at least 10 of 40 breast cancer cell lines (the average CPM for the gene of two repeats is ≧1). Then, from this list of expressed genes, we counted the number of TSGs and OGs with tumor aberrant transcript isoforms targeted by NMD and the number of TSGs and OGs without the isoforms, and organized the count data into a 2 x 2 contingency table. Finally, we used Fisher's exact test on this contingency table to evaluate whether tumor aberrant isoforms targeted by NMD are associated with TSGs. Additionally, for each cell line, we calculated the proportion of TSGs, OGs, and "other" genes expressed in that cell line that also expressed aberrant transcript isoforms in the tumor targeted by NMD (genes for which the average CPM for the two repeats is > 1). We used a paired two-tailed Wilcoxon test to assess whether the distribution of these proportion values ​​across all 40 breast cancer cell lines differed between TSGs and OGs.

[0136] III. References The following references, to the extent that they provide exemplary procedural or other details supplementary to those set forth herein, are specifically incorporated herein by reference. TIFF2024543250000026.tif66128TIFF2024543250000027.tif244107TIFF2024543250000028.tif244127TIFF2024543250000029.tif11128

Claims

1. 1. A method for preparing a panel of biotinylated oligonucleotide probes, comprising: (a) obtaining a set of oligonucleotides, each oligonucleotide comprising a target gene binding sequence at its 5' end and a primer binding sequence at its 3' end, each oligonucleotide having the same primer binding sequence, and the 5' end of the primer binding sequence comprising a nickase target sequence; (b) incubating the set of oligonucleotides with primers that hybridize to the primer binding sequences and biotinylated dNTPs (e.g., biotin-dUTP) under conditions that allow extension of the primers using the oligonucleotides as templates, thereby producing extended primers that are complementary to the oligonucleotides, wherein each extended primer comprises, from 5' to 3', a primer, a nickase target sequence, and a biotinylated probe; (c) nicking the extended primer complementary to the oligonucleotide with a nickase capable of cleaving the extended primer at the target sequence of the nickase to separate the biotinylated probe and regenerate the primer at the 3' end; (d) extending the regenerated 3'-end primer using the oligonucleotide as a template to displace and release the biotinylated probe; and (e) repeating steps (c) and (d). A method comprising:

2. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein each oligonucleotide in the set comprises at its 5' end a sequence of 30 to 120 nucleotides capable of hybridizing to a target gene and at its 3' end a primer binding site of 30 nucleotides, or each oligonucleotide in the set is about 60 to 150 nucleotides in length.

3. The 30 nucleotide primer binding site has the following sequence depending on the nickase used and selected from: and where is the universal primer sequence and the italicized bases are the targeting sequence; The method of claim 2.

4. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein 5'-terminal sequences of 30 to 120 nucleotides within the set of oligonucleotides are tiled across the entire sequence of each target gene.

5. The oligonucleotides are tiled across the sequence of each target gene at a density of about 0.5x, about 1x, or about 2x, or greater than 0.5x, greater than 1x, or greater than 2x, or the oligonucleotides are A region of a targeted gene sequence, including, but not limited to, the genomic DNA or RNA sequence of the target gene, including exon and / or intron sequences. The method of claim 4, wherein the image is tiled over

6. Step (b) is (i) combining a set of oligonucleotides, primers, deoxynucleotides, and biotinylated dNTPs (e.g., biotin-dUTP) and incubating the mixture at 95°C for 2 minutes, followed by slowly (-0.1°C / sec) decreasing the temperature to 4°C; and (ii) adding a single-stranded DNA binding protein and a DNA polymerase exhibiting 5' to 3' strand displacement activity and incubating at a temperature between 20°C and 37°C for the initial primer extension.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

7. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the DNA polymerase having 5' to 3' strand displacement activity includes, but is not limited to, Klenow fragment (3'→5' exo-) DNA polymerase; Hemo KlenTaq DNA polymerase; Bst DNA polymerase, large fragment; Bst DNA polymerase; Bsu DNA polymerase, large fragment; phi29 DNA polymerase; and Vent® (exo-) DNA polymerase.

8. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein steps (c) through (e) comprise adding nickase to the reaction and incubating at a temperature between 20 and 37 degrees.

9. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the incubation is carried out for 30 minutes to 24 hours.

10. 10. The method of claim 1, wherein steps (d) and (e) are performed without any external manipulation.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of (f) isolating and / or purifying the biotinylated probe.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the nickase may include, but is not limited to, Nt.BspQI, Nt.BstNBI, Nb.AlwI, or Nt.BsmAI.

13. The extension of steps (b) and (d) DNA polymerases with 5' to 3' strand displacement activity, including, but not limited to, Klenow fragment (3'→5' exo-) DNA polymerase; Hemo KlenTaq DNA polymerase; Bst DNA polymerase, large fragment; Bst DNA polymerase; Bsu DNA polymerase, large fragment; phi29 DNA polymerase; and Vent (exo-) DNA polymerase. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed by

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the reaction is an isothermal reaction.

15. A panel of biotinylated oligonucleotide probes produced by the method of any one of claims 1 to 14.

16. Each probe comprises one or more biotin-NMP residues (e.g., biotin-UMP residues), and / or each probe comprises: Target nucleic acid sequences, including but not limited to the DNA locus of a gene, a transcript isoform, or an intergenic DNA region a sequence complementary to 16. A panel of probes according to claim 15.

17. 1. A method for sequencing multiple nucleic acid molecules, comprising: (a) obtaining a sample containing a plurality of nucleic acid molecules; (b) hybridizing the panel of probes of claim 15 to a plurality of nucleic acid molecules; (c) capturing the hybridized probes using streptavidin beads; (d) amplifying the nucleic acid molecules bound to the captured hybridized probes; and (e) sequencing the amplified nucleic acid molecules A method comprising:

18. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the sequencing comprises Sanger sequencing; sequencing-by-synthesis, including but not limited to Illumina's NGS platform sequencing and PacBio's long-read sequencing; or nanopore sequencing.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the streptavidin beads are magnetic.

20. The sample is dsDNA libraries, including but not limited to cDNA libraries and fragmented genomic DNA libraries; 19. The method of claim 18.

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