Most of the base pairs that differ between two human genomes are in intermediate-sized structural variants (50 bp to 5 kb), which are too small to detect with array comparative genomic hybridization or optical mapping but too large to reliably discover with short-read DNA sequencing. Long-read sequencing with PacBio Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) Sequencing platforms fills this technology gap. PacBio SMRT Sequencing detects tens of thousands of structural variants in a human genome with approximately five times the sensitivity of short-read DNA sequencing. Effective application of PacBio SMRT Sequencing to detect structural variants requires quality bioinformatics tools that account for…
Structural variants (genomic differences =50 base pairs) contribute to the evolution of traits and disease. Most structural variants (SVs) are too small to detect with array comparative genomic hybridization and too large to reliably discover with short-read DNA sequencing.
In this ASHG 2017 presentation, Jonas Korlach, the CSO of PacBio shared updates on three applications featuring SMRT Sequencing on the Sequel System, highlighting structural variant detection, targeted sequencing and the Iso-Seq method of RNA sequencing. He provided details on structural variant calling using pbsv to call insertions and deletions and compared PacBio variant calling with other technologies. Korlach described how targeted sequencing can be used to interrogate repeat expansions, detect and phase minor variants and can access medically relevant but previously inaccessible gene targets. He presented research featuring the Iso-Seq method that identified isoforms, corrected previous isoform annotations and…