Illumina Nextera DNA Flex Library Prep Kit for whole genome sequencing

Illumina has announced the Nextera DNA Flex Library Prep Kit for whole genome sequencing. It eliminates the need for sample preparation for whole blood and saliva and removes tedious steps in the library prep workflow, such as mechanical fragmentation of DNA, quantification and normalisation.

The product enables the direct input of blood and saliva samples, removing the need for ancillary equipment and reagents to extract DNA and quantify samples concentration prior to sequencing. It reduces hands-on touch points with On-Bead Tagmentation, which reduces total library prep turnaround time to less than 3 h.

The kit enhances library preparation efficiency with integrated DNA extraction protocols for blood, saliva, dried blood spots and direct colony. It enables the user to obtain consistent insert sizes and high coverage uniformity with minimal hands-on time and automation-friendly protocols. It supports a broad range of inputs (1–500 ng) from multiple types of genomes.

The assay platform has been designed to support the development of multiple products. It offers a fast, integrated workflow for a wide variety of applications, from human WGS to WGS preps for libraries of amplicons, plasmids and microbial, parasitic or fungal species, all compatible with any Illumina sequencer.