Custom kits for Agilent's Sureselect XT target enrichment system that can capture up to 34 megabases of genomic regions of interest for next-generation sequencing are now available from the company.
Agilent said this fivefold increase in coverage from previous custom kits enables researchers to expand the breadth of research beyond the human exome to sequence large regions of interest in animals, micro-organisms, plants and other organisms where commercial predefined content or catalogue target enrichment kits are not available.
Researchers are now able to begin their studies with large catalogue captures or large custom captures up to 34 megabases and discover SNPs, insertions/deletions and copy number variations by casting a wide net.
They can then design focused custom enrichment libraries for follow-up across many samples.
Agilent provides E-array, an online target enrichment and microarray design tool, enabling customers to design and order Sureselect XT custom target enrichment kits in quantities ranging from 10-5,000 reactions, in formats for all major next-generation sequencing platforms.
Sureselect and E-array will continue to facilitate fast design iterations as more sequencing results become available.
Users of Sureselect XT now have a full range of library design options, from ready-to-use catalogue kits, to hybrid designs that mix catalogue and custom content, to completely custom designs.
Target enrichment streamlines next-generation sequencing workflows by allowing researchers to sequence just the genomic areas of interest rather than entire genomes.
Combined with the speed of leading next-generation sequencers, Sureselect XT's multiplexing capabilities are claimed to make it possible to interrogate genomic regions of interest from more samples per study than previously possible.
The bottleneck of library preparation and target enrichment can now be removed.
Further increasing throughput, Agilent offers an integrated workstation that automates Sureselect XT library preparation and target-enrichment workflows.
Samples can be indexed for multiplex sequencing, and all reagents are automation-compatible.
Turnkey automation protocols for RNA capture will soon be added to available automation protocols on Agilent's Bravo-based automated liquid-handling system.
