smallrnaseq: Short Non Coding RNA-Seq Analysis With Python

Abstract

The use of next generation sequencing is now a standard approach to elucidate the small non-coding RNA species (sncRNAs) present in tissue and biofluid samples. This has revealed the wide variety of RNAs with regulatory functions the best studied of which are microRNAs. Profiling of sncRNAs by deep sequencing allows measures of absolute abundance and for the discovery of novel species that have eluded previous methods. Specific considerations must be made when quantifying and cataloging sncRNAs and multiple algorithms are now available, mostly focused on miRNA analysis. smallrnaseq is a Python package that implements some of the standard approaches for quantification and analysis of sncRNAs. This includes miRNA quantification and novel miRNA prediction. A command line interface makes the software accessible for general users.