Figure 3. Tendon pooling affects RNA yield but not quality.

Representative electropherogram digital gel of RNA from different-sized pools of Achilles tendons demonstrates high integrity RNA across all samples (A). Called RINs for pools (n = 3 per pool) demonstrates that RNA quality from a single tendon is comparable to that from pools of tendons. Sample RINs are sufficiently high for use in RNA-seq gene counting and differential expression analysis for as low as one Achilles tendon (B). Concentration of RNA from single or pooled tendons increases with tendon number (n = 3 per pool) (C). The middle line represents the median, the box is quartiles 2 and 3 interquartile range (IQR), and whiskers are 1.5× IQR (B, C).