Illumina has released new sequencing chemistry kits and software, as well as a new mate pair library preparation kit, for its Genome Analyzer.
According to the company, the new chemistry kits and software increase the number of reads per run by 40 percent and extend the read length to more than 75 base pairs.
The new mate pair library preparation kit allows users to generate paired-end libraries with 2- to 5-kilobase inserts and is complementary to Illumina's existing short-insert paired-end libraries, which have 200- to 500-base inserts.
According to the company, the new releases enable researchers to generate 10 to 15 gigabases of high-quality data per run on the GA.
Roche NimbleGen has launched a Sequence Capture 2.1M Human Exome microarray. The new array targets approximately 180,000 human protein coding exons and about 700 miRNA exons. Built on the company’s HD2 platform, the array carries 2.1 million oligonucleotides greater than 60 nucleotides in length. It is based on the April 30, 2008, build of the Consensus CDS database project, an effort to identify a core set of high-quality human and mouse protein-coding regions.
According to the company, the new arrays are optimized for subsequent sequencing of captured exons on the Genome Sequencer FLX from Roche’s 454 Life Sciences, using the GS FLX Titanium chemistry.
SoftGenetics said that its NextGene software now includes a de Bruijn graph method for the assembly of paired read data from second-generation sequencers such as the Applied Biosystems SOLiD and the Illumina Genome Analyzer. The method uses short words instead of entire reads as indexes to develop the graph, reducing redundancy. The assembly technique is able to produce contigs greater than 100 kilobases in length, according to SoftGenetics.
MicroPep, a division of Precision Engineered Products, said it has fabricated its first Microwell Array, a slide with 42 million wells that are each 3 micrometers in size. The company said the array will be used for biomedical assays such as DNA sequencing.