PSXIV-24 - Real-Time, On-Site Whole Genome Sequencing with Oxford Nanopore Technologies' MinION

Most quantitative geneticists are traditionally trained for data analysis in genetic evaluation and genomic prediction, but rarely have extensive knowledge of molecular genetics or experience in experimental labs. Recent products, such as those launched by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), give those quantitative geneticists a comprehensible and hands-on toolkit to explore DNA sequencing. The ‘MinION’, a small DNA sequencer, is of interest for quantitative geneticists due to both the minimal learning curve and the non-proprietary USB connectivity. This device is small enough to be portable, allowing for potential real-time, on-farm sequencing. The objective of this project is to compare the whole genome sequence (WGS) output of the MinION sequencer to that of the Illumina HiSeq 4000. Blood was collected from a 6-month-old Akaushi calf born on a Michigan State University farm. DNA was extracted from the sample using the QIAamp DNA Blood Kit from Qiagen, and library DNA ligation preparation (SQK-LSK109) from ONT was used. After base-calling with guppy software (provided by ONT), the data were preprocessed and experimental runs with the MinION were compared using quality control. Finally, the data were aligned with guppy software, and was compared to the aligned WGS obtained with Illumina HiSeq. Quality results from each MinION indicate that, despite the low amount of sequence collected in each run (~225,303 reads per run), the quality of bases sequenced was high (Q≥7). The aligned data from the Illumina sequencer provided 40x coverage of the genome, with a total of 739,339,742 reads. Although the amount of data obtained with MinION is much smaller than that of Illumina HiSeq, the high quality of MinION’s data combined with its ease of use give an opportunity of genomic sequencing for users who are either inexperienced or do not have access to large genomic sequencing devices.