Rapid and Inexpensive Whole-Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 using 1200 bp Tiled Amplicons and Oxford Nanopore Rapid Barcoding

  1. Nikki E. Freed
  2. Markéta Vlková
  3. Muhammad B. Faisal
  4. Olin K. Silander

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Abstract

Rapid and cost-efficient whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is critical for understanding viral transmission dynamics. Here we show that using a new multiplexed set of primers in conjunction with the Oxford Nanopore Rapid Barcode library kit allows for faster, simpler, and less expensive SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing. This primer set results in amplicons that exhibit lower levels of variation in coverage compared to other commonly used primer sets. Using five SARS-CoV-2 patient samples with C q values between 20 and 31, we show that high-quality genomes can be generated with as few as 10,000 reads (approximately 5 Mbp of sequence data). We also show that mis-classification of barcodes, which may be more likely when using the Oxford Nanopore Rapid Barcode library prep, is unlikely to cause problems in variant calling. This method reduces the time from RNA to genome sequence by more than half compared to the more standard ligation-based Oxford Nanopore library preparation method at considerably lower costs.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.28.122648: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    tsv files necessary for the ARTIC variant calling pipeline are available on Zenodo https://zenodo.org/record/3897530#.
    Zenodo
    suggested: (ZENODO, RRID:SCR_004129)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.28.122648v3 on bioRxiv
  3. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.28.122648: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementThis work has been provisionally approved under emergency authorisation by the New Zealand Northern B COVID-19 ​Human​ Health and Disability Ethics Committees, application number 20/NTB/85.Randomizationnot detected.Blindingnot detected.Power Analysisnot detected.Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Amplicon sets are shown as grey bars, with the amplicons in ‘Pool 1’ numbered (see Methods).
    Amplicon
    suggested: (Amplicon, SCR_003294)
    Sequencing, mapping, and assembly statistics for a four hour MinION run.
    MinION
    suggested: (MinION, SCR_017985)

    Results from OddPub: We did not find a statement about open data. We also did not find a statement about open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore is not a substitute for expert review. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers) in the manuscript, and detects sentences that appear to be missing RRIDs. SciScore also checks to make sure that rigor criteria are addressed by authors. It does this by detecting sentences that discuss criteria such as blinding or power analysis. SciScore does not guarantee that the rigor criteria that it detects are appropriate for the particular study. Instead it assists authors, editors, and reviewers by drawing attention to sections of the manuscript that contain or should contain various rigor criteria and key resources. For details on the results shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  4. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.28.122648v2 on bioRxiv
  5. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.28.122648v1 on bioRxiv
  6. Version published to 10.1093/biomethods/bpaa014