The Third Revolution in Sequencing Technology

Publication date: Available online 22 June 2018Source: Trends in GeneticsAuthor(s): Erwin L. van Dijk, Yan Jaszczyszyn, Delphine Naquin, Claude ThermesForty years ago the advent of Sanger sequencing was revolutionary as it allowed complete genome sequences to be deciphered for the first time. A second revolution came when next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies appeared, which made genome sequencing much cheaper and faster. However, NGS methods have several drawbacks and pitfalls, most notably their short reads. Recently, third-generation/long-read methods appeared, which can produce genome assemblies of unprecedented quality. Moreover, these technologies can directly detect epigenetic modifications on native DNA and allow whole-transcript sequencing without the need for assembly. This marks the third revolution in sequencing technology. Here we review and compare the various long-read methods. We discuss their applications and their respective strengths and weaknesses and provide future perspectives.

Source: Trends in Genetics - July 10, 2018 Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Source Type: research