Converting RPKM into counts

Question

[DBScan]

Is it possible to convert RPKM into counts? If I want to get the count of gene_i for sample_j, can I calculate (the coding length of gene_i * RPKM of geni_j and sample_j * sum of all RPKM of sample_j) / (10^9)?

Answer 1

[Shalu Jhanwar]

I'd recommend using raw counts directly calculated from the aligned files (SAM or BAM). instead of converting RPKM to Counts. However, if you'd like to reverse the operation from RPKM to Counts, then you should know the exact information (gene length, total mapped reads etc) that was used to get RPKM from the raw counts at the first place.