Accelerating biology research with a bench-top next-generation sequencer

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The core set of information that living systems rely upon to grow, interact with their environment, and pass on to future generations is encoded in DNA. Recent advances in technologies have enabled the complete sequencing of the millions to billions of nucleotides that make up the entire code (genome) of an organism and have drastically accelerated the types of questions that biologists can address. For example, it is now possible to directly read out DNA variants that cause favourable crop traits, extended life-span in fruit flies and worms, or even mutations that cause cancer in humans. In fact, sequencing has become so powerful that nearly all areas of biology are routinely using it to sequence DNA as well as RNA to ask hundreds of questions that just five years ago were unthinkable. The sequencing technology that most researchers have settled on is manufactured by Illumina. The instruments they sell come in a variety of sizes but all produce the same type of sequencing data (i.e. data are all compatible at the analysis stages), they simply vary in their throughput. The most expensive options have the highest throughput and these tend to populate large genome centers. The smallest and cheapest Illumina instrument is the MiSeq. Despite having the lowest throughput, it has the advantage of enabling affordable sequencing with a rapid (24 hour) turnaround time and generates reads that are longer than other Illumina sequencers while yielding a respectable throughput sufficient for many applications. The Dept. of Biology at Queen's has also begun to take advantage of these sequencing technologies. The demand is high; among the 10 investigators on this proposal, we have identified several dozen applications that will benefit training of over 100 HQP over the next 5 years. A MiSeq will enable rapid and affordable sequencing and will facilitate addressing diverse topics, including: origins of diversity and evolution of range limits, human disorders, epigenetics, sequencing methods development, evolution and genetics of development, reproduction, ageing, metagenomics of climate change, adaptation and diversification in birds, gene expression of metabolic genes, and agricultural genomics.