Hybrid Service

Our Hybrid service offers the best parts of our Long Read and Short Read services, and combines data from the latest R10.4.1 chemistry from Oxford Nanopore Technologies with 2 x 250 bp Illumina reads to provide the absolute highest quality assemblies of your bacterial genomes.

When we sequence a genome, we are trying to put a huge puzzle back together. The longer the reads, the bigger the puzzle piece, and the more contextual information is available around the edges of those pieces to guide correct placement.

However, long reads also have a lower raw read accuracy than short reads, and it can struggle to resolve certain motifs accurately. This is where short reads come in; we use the higher quality data to correct any errors in the long read sequence, producing a final assembly that offers the best accuracy possible with current technologies.

Service Overview

We charge £150 Ex. VAT for bacterial genomes up to 10 Mb in length.

We guarantee that you will receive 50X long read coverage, and 30X short read coverage of your genome. If we don’t hit that, we’ll sequence it again at no extra charge.

We have low trigger points for volume discounts, meaning Hybrid can be purchased for as little as £100 Ex VAT per sample.

Our target turnaround time is 5-7 weeks from sample receipt.

Send Us

Hybrid is a bacterial strain only service. All you need to do is grow your bacteria, and place 10⁶ - 10⁹ cells into buffer tubes that we provide, you can see our submission protocol here:

• Strain Submission Protocol

Service Outputs

Your data will be delivered via a secure project portal, which can be shared with collaborators and key stakeholders. Your data will be stored for a minimum of 12 months.

The outputs will include:

• Raw R10.4.1 ONT long reads and 2 x 250 bp Illumina reads in .fastq format
  • Allows you to perform your own analysis and upload to public repositories.
• A polished, hybrid genome assembly in .fasta format
  • Allows you to query your genome for key information, can be used in various downstream analyses.
• Annotations in genbank (.gbk) and .gff formats
  • Allows you to look at the CDS identified in your genome.
• Taxonomic classifications of your reads and assembly
  • Provides 16S and species identification to confirm your sample is pure.

Good applications

Hybrid is designed for people that require the absolute highest quality assemblies possible. You get the best of both our Long and Short Read services, and all of the data that you would receive from each service individually, but also the benefit of an assembly that uses both of the datasets for the best outcome possible.

Bad applications

Hybrid is our most expensive service, so people on a budget might prefer to use our Short or Long Read services.

If you’re just trying to classify a ≤30 Kb plasmid from a cloning experiment, then Hybrid will be overkill. Check out our PlasmidSeq service, which costs just £10 Ex. VAT.

If you’re working on a non-bacterial organism, or cannot send us strains, then our Short Read service would be best, as we can accept a wider variety of input organisms, and we can accept DNA submissions for this service.

WGS Overview Get a quote