Long Read Sequencing for Animal and Plant Research

In the face of changing climates and growing populations, high-precision, long read sequencing technology is enabling plant and animal scientists to gain actionable genomic insights that no other technology can provide. CD Genomics is a leading provider of customized solutions for long read sequencing, dedicated to capturing biodiversity, advancing agriculture, and improving gene editing workflows.

Plant genomes contain important information for understanding their structure. Resolving plant genome structure is key to unraveling the complex framework of genetic factors that determine phenotypic traits. High-quality reference genome assemblies are critical for accelerating plant breeding through the selection of desirable genes with improved agronomic traits, including high yields, tolerance to various environmental stresses, and resistance to pathogens. Animal genomics research can provide invaluable insights into many areas of scientific research by completing the construction of whole-genome sequence maps of these animals and using them as the centerpiece for a range of gene annotation, species evolution, and other studies that can provide the foundation for in-depth research in areas such as human disease research, animal environmental adaptation and evolution, species diversity conservation, and climate change.

Animal and plant genomes generated by Sanger and next-generation sequencing (NGS) provide insights into species diversity and evolution. However, the application of Sanger sequencing is limited due to high cost, labor intensity, and low throughput, while NGS reads are too short to resolve abundant repeats and polyploids, resulting in incomplete or ambiguous assemblies. The emergence and improvement of long read sequencing with third-generation sequencing methods, such as PacBio and Nanopore, show promise in producing high-quality assemblies of complex genomes in animals and plants.

Fig. 1. Plant genome project workflow from DNA extraction over Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing to data submission. (Pucker et al., 2022)

Our Long Read Sequencing Solutions for Animal and Plant Research

CD Genomics is proud to offer long read sequencing solutions for animal and plant related research based on the PacBio SMRT sequencing and ONT Nanopore sequencing platforms.

Our long read sequencing solutions provide novel and cost-effective insights into animal genomes, transcriptomes, and microbiomes by precisely resolving complex genomic regions, haplotypes, and full-length transcripts. Direct sequencing of natural DNA or RNA further allows for the simultaneous identification of base modifications and nucleotide sequences.

Our long read sequencing provides long reads that can accurately assemble large, highly repetitive plant genomes and resolve structural variants, transposons, and transgene insertions, thus providing new insights into plant biology, evolution, and breeding strategies. Base modifications can be identified along with nucleotide sequences without additional experimental steps or costs, and the facility to sequence full-length transcripts supports enhanced gene annotation and gene expression studies.

Our long read sequencing is used in the following areas of plant and animal research.

Advantages of Long Read Sequencing for Animal and Plant Research

• Constructs more complete, accurate, and phased reference genomes for all types of organisms by generating long reads that span complex regions, repetitive sequences, and structural variants.
• Allows detection and characterization of variation at all scales, including single nucleotide polymorphisms, structural variation, copy number variation, translocations, and homopolymer duplications.
• Enables the detection of a wide range of epigenetic marks at a single base resolution, contributing to the understanding of mechanisms of development, adaptation, and response to environmental stimuli.
• Ability to identify and characterize selective splicing events, transcript isoforms, and non-coding RNAs by generating full-length transcript sequences.

CD Genomics is committed to exploiting the potential of long read sequencing to ensure that our customers remain at the forefront of animal and plant research. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. We look forward to working with you on projects of interest.

Related Services

PacBio SMRT Sequencing
Oxford Nanopore Sequencing
Animal and Plant Genomics with Long-Read Sequencing
Animal/Plant Whole Genome De Novo Sequencing
Animal/Plant Whole Genome Sequencing
Animal/Plant RNA Sequencing