Pacific Biosciences’ Sequel II added to our NGS facilities

We have added a Sequel II system from Pacific Biosciences to our Next Generation Sequencing facilities. The new platform widens our possibilities to optimally support partners in answering their toughest research questions in crop innovation.

At KeyGene, next to our strategic focus on the Oxford Nanopore Technologies platforms, we continue to invest in NGS technologies that can provide additional value in supporting our partners. The Sequel II platform can generate high accuracy (HiFi) consensus reads that are very valuable in generating high-quality reference genomes, even in case of species with complex, heterozygous and polyploid genomes. The increased output is also of great value for transcriptome analysis.

Fast and good

The Sequel II platform is much more cost-effective than the earlier Sequel system, thanks to its ~8X more data output. The platform combines high accuracy (comparable to the Sanger-quality accuracy) with long read output (i.e. HiFi reads). The accuracy is achieved through the principle of circular consensus sequencing. Generation of circular DNA libraries allows for sequencing of DNA molecules in repeat passes. The base-level resolutions obtained in this manner show a >99% single-molecule read accuracy.

The Sequel II platform was acquired through a collaboration with Wageningen University & Research, within the Shared Research Facilities. Dick Roelofs, program scientist DNA Innovation at KeyGene is enthusiastic about the collaboration with WUR in acquiring the Sequel II. “Thanks to our joint effort, we can provide our customers with currently available long-read sequencing technology that best fit their research needs.” says Roelofs.

Would you like to learn more about the opportunities our NGS facilities can offer in best answering questions for your crop innovation research? Contact Alexander Wittenberg, NGS scientist.