Reducing Sequencing Costs with the PacBio SPRQ-Nx chemistry
The DNA Technologies Core is introducing the PacBio SPRQ-Nx chemistry. The new chemistry significantly reduces the long-read sequencing costs. SPRQ-Nx enables for the first time the (limited) re-use of PacBio flowcells (named SMRT-cells). After a run, the library molecules are completely stripped from the SPRQ-Nx SMRT-cells and the surface undergoes multiple washes before the SMRT-cell can be reloaded with a new library. All PacBio libraries will be individually barcode-indexed to rule out any potential for cross-contamination. PacBio has demonstrated that the SPRQ-Nx runs fulfill the same yield and quality metrics as conventional SPRQ-chemistry runs across multiple types of sequencing projects including them de novo genome assemblies for plant and animal samples:
Please see this PacBio page providing in-depth information on the new SPRQ-Nx chemistry and the QC data :
The flowcell re-use allows us to lower the prices for SPRQ-Nx runs by $300 (for UC-clients) compared to SPRQ. For multi-cell projects greater savings may be possible. Please inquire with us ([email protected]) to discuss the options. Implementing SPRQ-Nx goes along with some logistical limitations; thus, bigger projects may see bigger benefits.
SPRQ-Nx has one known limitation in that sequencing libraries shorter than 5 kb are not recommended for re-loading onto SPRQ-Nx SMRT-cells.
For more information contact our PacBio experts Oanh Nguyen ([email protected]) and Noravit Chumchin ([email protected]).
