Breakthrough innovations in ultra-high throughput sequencing methods

摘要

The first high throughput, low-cost alternative to standard sequencing systems that are based on Sanger chemistry has been introduced to the market and is taking the sequencing world by storm. Developed by the US-based company 454 Life Sciences, the new technology — the Genome Sequencer 20 system — is exclusively distributed worldwide by Roche Diagnostics. Using the new sequencing system, it is possible to address a broad variety of different applications in the fields of whole genome sequencing, transcriptome and gene regulation studies, as well as amplicon analysis. This article describes the principles and some of the applications of the new system. Many such applications simply cannot, for either technical or economical reasons, be carried out using standard Sanger technology. The new system has already led to significant developments in genomic research such as the identification of novel transcripts or unknown classes of small non-coding RNAS (sncRNAs).