Taking the Library Fast Lane to Speed Up the Scientific Journey
Every scientific journey begins with a question that opens a door to numerous paths of discovery. Some paths are quick, some are long and winding, while others seem straightforward until they reach an unexpected dead end.
Scientists understand that during their search for answers, detours are inevitable. Undaunted, they choose a path, testing hypotheses, reevaluating their decisions, and sometimes even changing course entirely. Miles of lengthy workflows separate researchers from results, but difficult destinations often bring about incredible discoveries.
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is frequently encountered during the scientific journey. Today, sequencing data is instrumental to unravel molecular pathways, inform diagnoses, and identify species. But obtaining reads requires navigating slow and oftentimes demanding library preparation workflows. What if there was a way to speed up the path from workflow to result?
How to Accelerate Discovery
This NGS November, Zymo Research is celebrating the scientists pushing the boundaries of NGS library preparation. Scientists are using cutting-edge technologies to blaze the trail of discovery and pioneer routes to new answers. Empowering researchers as they set out on their scientific journey, Zymo Research is offering a weekly series throughout November to visit several common friction points in library preparation, starting with how to accelerate discovery by shortening the time spent at the bench.
Library preparation has a reputation for lengthy protocols that include prolonged incubations, frequent pipetting, and repetitive clean-up steps. Tedious workflows make the road to sequencing feel longer than it needs to be. By developing faster, more reliable workflows, Zymo Research accelerates benchwork to streamline the critical results that guide every step of the scientific journey.
Take the Library Fast Lane by exploring products that will save the lab’s most valuable reagent: time.
Stranded, rRNA-Depleted Total RNA Libraries for Any Species in as Little as 4 Hours
rRNA depletion is a critical step to prepare total RNA libraries for transcriptomics research in most species. Traditionally, probe-based strategies use species-specific probes to remove rRNA. Some commercial kits provide these probes, at least for application-specific purposes, but the probes may not work broadly for every species and can require new designs for non-model organisms. Probe design is a roadblock that slows down library preparation before it even begins. The Zymo-Seq RiboFree® Total RNA Library Kit is a probe-free, universal workflow that enables rRNA depletion and library preparation for any species in as little as 4 hours. RiboFree® opens the door to a fully standardized workflow by removing the need for species-specific probes, instead using enzymatic depletion of rRNA. Avoid probe-based traffic and get on the road towards unbiased, NGS-ready stranded RNA-seq libraries with RiboFree®. The fastest step is the one you never have to perform.
The Zymo-Seq RiboFree® Total RNA Library Kit Produces Dense Coverage of Protein-Coding and Other Transcripts. The RiboFree® Universal rRNA Depletion technology boosted the number of reads for protein-coding and other non-rRNA transcripts to > 90% in samples across several kingdoms and phyla, detecting exceptional numbers of genes. Classification of the STAR-aligned reads was based on Ensembl annotations and RepeatMasker rRNA tracks from UCSC genome browser when applicable. “# Genes Detected” accounted for the number of unique gene IDs with TPM > 0.1.
96 Samples in 30 Minutes of Hands-On Time
When preparing libraries for 16S rRNA gene sequencing, multiple amplification steps, lengthy bead-based clean-ups, and too many samples can make the process slow and cumbersome. Zymo Research’s ultra-fast, normalization-free Quick-16S™ Plus library prep workflow allows 96 samples to be processed in just 30 minutes of hands-on time. The workflow for Quick-16S™ Plus includes a single amplification step with specially designed primers so that targeted amplification and library barcoding can occur simultaneously. Then, libraries are pooled together in a single tube for clean-up. Skip repeated bead-based clean-ups and manual normalization and get results faster with Quick-16S™ Plus.
The Quick-16S™ Plus NGS Library Prep Kit dramatically reduces the hands-on time compared to the Illumina® 16S Protocol. With 40 fewer steps, one person can easily process 384 samples in one day.
More Products Found Along the Library Fast Lane
Genomics: The Zymo-Seq™ SPLAT DNA Library Kit handles genomic, cell-free, and FFPE-derived DNA to generate sequencing-ready libraries in as little as 3 hours. In a two-step, end-repair-free workflow that captures true DNA fragment ends, directly ligate adapters and perform library amplification so that you’re not stuck waiting for the DNA fragment ends to be repaired in your sample.
Epigenomics: The Zymo-Seq™ WGBS Library Kit produces whole-genome bisulfite libraries in under 4 hours, with only one tube required for library preparation after mild bisulfite conversion. Instead of having multiple transfers, use one tube to get directly where you want to go faster with the WGBS Library Kit.
Where Will NGS Pioneers Go Next?
After taking the Library Fast Lane, where will NGS Pioneers go next?
Low inputs, degraded DNA, fixed tissues.
Challenging library preparations can feel less like a path and more like a maze, with obstacles blocking every step towards reliable data. Next week, we’ll explore what to do when uncooperative samples leave you stranded in the Library Labyrinth.