How many reads per sample do I need ?

A general recommendation would be to have 5 - 10 million reads per sample.

For low input RNA amounts or libraries with lower small RNA content and depending on the downstream application, a higher number of reads per sample may be required.


Small RNA / miRNA Sequencing

Number of reads

Differential Expression (Profiling)

1 - 5 M

Discovery

5 - 10 M

Table | Sequencing Read Recommendations by Application (Campbell et al., 2015).