DATE: October 15, 2019

TIME: 10:00am PDT

At present, most metagenomic surveys rely on high-output platforms such as Illumina. However, the short reads generated by these platforms limit specificity of taxonomic assignment and result in highly fragmented assemblies. Single molecule sequencing platforms are able to sequence much longer molecules and the output of these platforms, particular the PromethION from Oxford Nanopore now supports the study of complex microbial communities using shotgun metagenomics.

We assessed a variety of methods using both a ten-species mock community and clinical samples seeking to find a method capable of generating ultra-long reads (>100 kb) from these sample types. The results presented here demonstrate the importance of having lysis methods capable of extracting high-molecular weight DNA from recalcitrant organisms such as Gram-positive bacteria and fungi. Development of these methods is critical to support the growing field of clinical microbiome research including the ability to perform strain tracking and produce high-quality metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) from metagenomic samples.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain how to utilize mock microbial community standards to benchmark and optimize DNA extraction methods.
• Explain the effects that different lysis methods have on long-read metagneomic sequencing.
• Explain how a hybrid lysis technique can improve long-read data quality.

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LabRoots is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E. ® Program. By attending this webinar, you can earn 1 Continuing Education credit once you have viewed the webinar in its entirety.