WarpDemuX-custom - Multiplexed sequence-specific direct RNA sequencing of ribosomal RNA and beyond

Abstract Nanopore direct RNA sequencing has emerged as a powerful technology for studying RNA and modifications at single-molecule resolution. Although originally developed for polyadeny-lated RNAs, protocol adaptations have extended its application to non-polyadenylated RNA species, including tRNAs and rRNAs. However, the lack of open and flexible (de)multiplexing solutions remains a limitation for large-scale sequencing studies. Existing community-driven approaches enable multiplexing of polyadenylated RNAs and, more recently, tRNAs, but do not fully address the challenges of targeted sequence-specific Nanopore sequencing of non-polyadenylated RNAs. Here, we present an improved sequence-specific direct RNA sequencing protocol for ribosomal RNAs, achieving enhanced capture and longer read lengths as demonstrated for human 28S rRNA. We complement this protocol with an expanded WarpDemuX software toolbox for flexible sequence-specific (de)multiplexing. We validate the approach using human cell lines carrying knockouts of different C/D box snoRNAs involved in site-specific 2 ′ -O-ribose methylation of 28S rRNA. Our results demonstrate efficient multiplexed detection of sequence-specific RNA molecules and associated modification changes. While established here using rRNA, we validate our approach on another panel of non-polyadenylated RNA species, providing an open and scalable framework for targeted direct RNA sequencing and RNA modification analysis.