Just when you thought short read sequencing can't get longer

As 454 Preps Launch of Sanger-Length Reads, Early Customers Highlight Utility for De Novo Assembly

To assert its position as a provider of long-read high-quality next-gen sequencing data, Roche's 454 Life Sciences plans to commercially offer Sanger-length reads for its Genome Sequencer FLX by the end of next month, based on improved sequencing chemistry and an instrument upgrade.

Applications for the long reads, which the company has talked about for more than two years and had originally planned to launch in 2010 (IS 9/29/2009), include de novo assemblies of large and complex genomes, transcriptome sequencing, sequence capture, and shotgun metagenomics.

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