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June 1, 2021  |  

Genomic DNA sequences of HLA class I alleles generated using multiplexed barcodes and SMRT DNA Sequencing technology.

Allelic-level resolution HLA typing is known to improve survival prognoses post Unrelated Donor (UD) Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT). Currently, many commonly used HLA typing methodologies are limited either due to the fact that ambiguity cannot be resolved or that they are not amenable to high-throughput laboratories. Pacific Biosciences’ Single Molecule Real-Time (SMRT) DNA sequencing technology enables sequencing of single molecules in isolation and has read-length capabilities to enable whole gene sequencing for HLA. DNA barcode technology labels samples with unique identifiers that can be traced throughout the sequencing process. The use of DNA barcodes means that multiple samples can be sequenced in a single experiment but data can still be attributed to the correct sample. Here we describe the results of experiments that use DNA barcodes to facilitate sequencing of multiple samples for full-length HLA class I genes (known as multiplexing).


June 1, 2021  |  

HLA sequencing using SMRT Technology – High resolution and high throughput HLA genotyping in a clinical setting

Sequence based typing (SBT) is considered the gold standard method for HLA typing. Current SBT methods are rather laborious and are prone to phase ambiguity problems and genotyping uncertainties. As a result, the NGS community is rapidly seeking to remedy these challenges, to produce high resolution and high throughput HLA sequencing conducive to a clinical setting. Today, second generation NGS technologies are limited in their ability to yield full length HLA sequences required for adequate phasing and identification of novel alleles. Here we present the use of single molecule real time (SMRT) sequencing as a means of determining full length/long HLA sequences. Moreover we reveal the scalability of this method through multiplexing approches and determine HLA genotyping calls through the use of third party Gendx NGSengine® software.


June 1, 2021  |  

Long Amplicon Analysis: Highly accurate, full-length, phased, allele-resolved gene sequences from multiplexed SMRT Sequencing data.

The correct phasing of genetic variations is a key challenge for many applications of DNA sequencing. Allele-level resolution is strongly preferred for histocompatibility sequencing where recombined genes can exhibit different compatibilities than their parents. In other contexts, gene complementation can provide protection if deleterious mutations are found on only one allele of a gene. These problems are especially pronounced in immunological domains given the high levels of genetic diversity and recombination seen in regions like the Major Histocompatibility Complex. A new tool for analyzing Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) Sequencing data – Long Amplicon Analysis (LAA) – can generate highly accurate, phased and full-length consensus sequences for multiple genes in a single sequencing run.


June 1, 2021  |  

Assembly of complete KIR haplotypes from a diploid individual by the direct sequencing of full-length fosmids.

We show that linearizing and directly sequencing full-length fosmids simplifies the assembly problem such that it is possible to unambiguously assemble individual haplotypes for the highly repetitive 100-200 kb killer Ig-like receptor (KIR) gene loci of chromosome 19. A tiling of targeted fosmids can be used to clone extended lengths of genomic DNA, 100s of kb in length, but repeat complexity in regions of particular interest, such as the KIR locus, means that sequence assembly of pooled samples into complete haplotypes is difficult and in many cases impossible. The current maximum read length generated by SMRT Sequencing exceeds the length of a 40 kb fosmid; it is therefore possible to span an entire fosmid in one sequencing read. Shearing, sequencing and assembling fosmids in a shotgun approach is prone to errors when the underlying sequence is highly repetitive. We show that it is possible to directly sequence linearized fosmids and generate a high-quality consensus by simple alignment, removing the need for an error-prone assembly step. The high-quality sequence of complete fosmids can then be tiled into full haplotypes. We demonstrate the method on DNA samples from a number of individuals and fully recover the sequence of both haplotypes from a pool of KIR fosmids. The ability to haplotype and sequence complex immunogenetic regions will bring exciting opportunities to explore the evolution of disease associations of the immune sub-genome. This simple and robust approach can be scaled-up allowing a complex genomic region to be sequenced at a population level. We expect such sequencing to be valuable in disease association research.


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