NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The nucleic acid design and supply company Integrated DNA Technologies will provide Roche Diagnostics with fusion primers for some 454 sequencing applications, Roche said today.
The exclusive agreement calls for IDT to design, synthesize, and purify the primers for use with the 454 Genome Sequencer FLX System.
The applications that the IDT primers will suit include ultra-deep amplicon sequencing for detecting low-frequency mutations in disease-linked genes, and identification and quantification of common and rare variants in a population.
The IDT fusion primer design software uses a gene-specific database number or a reference sequence to develop 454 FusionPrimers for targeted DNA regions, including individual exons or all the exons from one or more genes, the company said.
“The software takes into account performance metrics of the entire fusion primer rather than simply adding 454 Life Sciences’ universal adaptor sequence to an otherwise standard PCR primer,” IDT said.
"By shifting the task of primer design to IDT's online tool, researchers can now focus their efforts on making discoveries,” 454 Life Sciences’ CEO, Chris McLeod said in a statement.
Financial terms of the agreement were not released.