Detection of Small RNAs and MicroRNAs Using Deep Sequencing Technology

Small RNAs (sRNAs) have made a large impact on many recent scientific discoveries. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a type of sRNA molecule and, although usually just 20–22 nucleotides in length, they are potent regulators of gene expression. Therefore, identification of miRNAs and profiling their abundance are fundamental to understanding an organism’s or tissue’s gene regulatory network. Next-generation sequencing methods have allowed researchers to quickly sequence and profile sRNA populations. This chapter describes a cloning procedure to identify the sRNAs or miRNAs present in an RNA sample.