Large-scale detection of in vivo transcription errors

Significance Gene expression requires accurate copying of the DNA template into messenger RNA by RNA polymerases. Errors occurring during this transcription process can lead to the production of nonfunctional proteins, which is likely to be deleterious. Therefore, natural selection is expected to enhance the fidelity of transcription. However, very little is known about the transcription error rates of different organisms. Here we present a unique method for the detection of transcription errors by replicated high-throughput sequencing of cDNA libraries. Applying this method to the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans , we report a large-scale analysis of transcription errors. Future applications of this method should allow a rapid increase in our knowledge of evolutionary forces acting on transcription fidelity.