Keygene Purchased Roche's Genome Sequencer 20 System
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Roche Diagnostics and Keygene N.V. have announced that Keygene purchased Roche´s Genome Sequencer 20 system, providing Keygene with hands-on access to this high throughput sequence technology.
Keygene, the first European customer of the Roche sequencing system, will work in close collaboration with 454 Life Sciences and Roche Diagnostics to develop applications in the field of plant genetics that are unlocked by the use of 454 Life Sciences technology in combination with Keygene’s existing DNA expertise and AFLP® and SNPWave™ technologies.
Besides high throughput sequencing of genomic DNA and EST’s in plants, these applications are directed to high throughput SNP and microsatellite discovery and other non-disclosed applications.
"The Genome Sequencer 20 System by now found its application mainly in the field of whole genome sequencing. Keygene is going to proof that it also can be a very useful tool for High Throughput genotyping," states Dr. Volker Pfahlert, Head of Roche Applied Science.
"The newly available sequence technologies fit extremely well with the genotyping and DNA technologies that Keygene developed over the years," says Prof. Dr. Arjen van Tunen, CEO of Keygene.
"The new GS20 technology will open up many new applications for plant biotech and breeding industries."
The hallmark of the Genome Sequencer 20 System, which had been developed by 454 Life Sciences, is the nanotechnology based approach to sequencing.
This allows the Genome Sequencer 20 Instrument to sequence over 20 million bases within a four and a half hour run, a throughput of 100 times that of instruments using current Sanger technology.
The technology integrates proprietary picoliter-technologies, patented light emitting sequencing chemistries, and informatics.
The simultaneous amplification of fragments is achieved by isolating individual DNA-carrying beads in separate aqueous droplets formed through the creation of a PCR-reaction-mixture oil emulsion.
The droplets act as separate microreactors in which parallel DNA amplifications are performed. The template-carrying beads are deposited by centrifugation into open wells of a PicoTiterPlate device - one bead to a well.
The plate is then inserted into the Genome Sequencer 20 Instrument. Nucleotides are sequentially flowed over the plate.
The incorporation of the appropriate nucleotide results in a chemical reaction that generates a light signal.
The chemiluminescent light information from all the active wells is captured by the CCD camera, and processed in real time by the onboard computer.
The raw data consists of a set of digital images from which the sequence of each fragment is determined.
