Total RNA was extracted with the TRI reagent (Ambion) using the manufacturer’s instructions. The RNase inhibitor RiboLock (Fermentas) was added to the samples and DNA was removed by treatment with DNase I (Fermentas). The integrity of the RNA samples was assessed with an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies). Subsequently, the 23S, 16S, and 5S rRNAs were removed by subtractive hybridization using the MICROBExpress kit (Ambion) following the protocol reported by Gómez-Lozano et al. (2014) (link). Removal of the rRNA was confirmed by an analysis with an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies). Sequencing libraries were prepared using the TruSeq Stranded mRNA Sample Preparation kit (Illumina). After each step, the samples were validated using an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies) and the final RNA concentration was measured using a Qubit 2.0 Fluorometer (Invitrogen). The libraries were sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq2000 platform with a paired-end protocol and read lengths of 100 nucleotides.
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