Rapid and inexpensive whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 using 1200 bp tiled amplicons and Oxford Nanopore Rapid Barcoding.

ABSTRACT: Rapid and cost-efficient whole-genome sequencing of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, is critical for understanding viral transmission dynamics. Here we show that using a new multiplexed set of primers in conjunction with the Oxford Nanopore Rapid Barcode library kit allows for faster, simpler, and less expensive SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing. This primer set results in amplicons that exhibit lower levels of variation in coverage compared to other commonly used primer sets. Using five SARS-CoV-2 patient samples with C_q values between 20 and 31, we show that high-quality genomes can be generated with as few as 10 000 reads (∼5 Mbp of sequence data). We also show that mis-classification of barcodes, which m

SUBMITTER: Freed NE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7454405 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature