Multiple freeze-thaw cycles lead to a loss of consistency in poly(A)-enriched RNA sequencing

Abstract RNA-Seq is ubiquitous, but depending on the study, sub-optimal sample handling may be required, resulting in repeated freeze-thaw cycles. However, little is known about how each cycle impacts downstream analyses, due to a lack of study and known limitations in common RNA quality metrics, e.g., RIN, at quantifying RNA degradation following repeated freeze-thaws. Here we quantify the impact of repeated freeze-thaw on the reliability of downstream RNA-Seq analysis. To do so, we developed a method to estimate the relative noise between technical replicates independently of RIN. Using this approach we inferred the effect of both RIN and the number of freeze-thaw cycles on sample noise. We find that RIN is unable to fully account for the change in sample noise due to freeze-thaw cycles. Additionally, freeze-thaw is detrimental to sample quality and differential expression (DE) reproducibility, approaching zero after three cycles for poly(A)-enriched samples, wherein the inherent 3’ bias in read coverage is more exacerbated by freeze-thaw cycles, while ribosome-depleted samples are less affected by freeze-thaws. The use of poly(A)-enrichment for RNA sequencing is pervasive in library preparation of frozen tissue, and thus, it is important during experimental design and data analysis to consider the impact of repeated freeze-thaw cycles on reproducibility.