RNA-Seq and find: entering the RNA deep field

Initial high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) experiments have revealed a complex and dynamic transcriptome, but because it samples transcripts in proportion to their abundances, assessing the extent and nature of low-level transcription using this technique has been difficult. A new assay, RNA CaptureSeq, addresses this limitation of RNA-Seq by enriching for low-level transcripts with cDNA tiling arrays prior to high-throughput sequencing. This approach reveals a plethora of transcripts that have been previously dismissed as 'noise', and hints at single-cell transcription fingerprints that may be crucial in defining cellular function in normal and disease states.