Innovations with ultra-long reads

The panel session at London Calling 2021 online saw three leading researchers present their latest work using ultra-long nanopore sequencing reads, obtained using the Ultra-Long DNA Sequencing Kit. Here you can watch these talks again and learn more about how ultra-long nanopore sequencing reads could help overcome challenges in your own research.

Roham Razaghi: Shedding light on the long-range interaction of the human epigenome using ultra-long nanopore sequencing

Roham Razaghi (Johns Hopkins University, USA) leveraged nanopore ultra-long reads and direct nanopore sequencing to better understand the long-range interplay between gene promoters and distal enhancers, and the ways methylation facilitates these interactions.

Matthew Brian Couger: Ultra-long nanopore sequencing for assembly and scaffolding of sex chromosomes

Traditional short-read sequencing methods struggle to resolve large, complex genomes, especially in repetitive or GC-rich regions. Whole chromosomal assemblies with repetitive structures such as mammalian sex chromosome systems therefore remain challenging to complete. Matthew Brian Couger (Brigham and Women's Hospital, USA) applied ultra-long nanopore reads to tackle the scaffolding of mammalian sex chromosomes, which remain understudied due to their repetitive structure. In a highly atypical mammalian sex chromosome system, the ultra-long reads were able to span the previously problematic regions, increasing contiguity and enabling investigation of working hypotheses for this system.

Jillian Hammond: Ultra-long reads from Australian reptiles

The availability of high-quality reference genomes is an essential tool for studying the evolutionary history of a given species. Jillian Hammond (Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Australia) is using ultra-long nanopore sequencing reads to assemble and phase highly homologous sex chromosomes in Australian reptile species and high-quality reference genomes for sea snakes. Generating read length N50s reaching up to ~100 kb with the Ultra-Long DNA Sequencing Kit, this data will help shed light on the genomics underpinning aquatic adaptations in these species.

Catch up with the rest of the talks from London Calling 2021 online and find out more about the Ultra-Long DNA Sequencing Kit.