Roche 454 GS Junior System software upgrade and workflow improvements

Roche has announced the availability of a software upgrade, and further upcoming sequencing performance and workflow improvements, to the company’s benchtop next-generation sequencing platform, the 454 GS Junior System.

The software package (v 2.7) improves sequencing consistency and robustness and also includes functionality improvements to the GS De Novo Assembler, GS Reference Mapper and GS Amplicon Variant Analyzer software.

The company also announced the availability of new protocols for paired-end sequencing (3, 8 and 20 kb span) using the GS FLX Titanium Rapid Library Preparation Kits. The protocols enable simple sample multiplexing for paired-end projects and reduce overall prep time.

In addition, the company has announced upcoming improvements to the system, which include extension to sequencing read lengths and automation of the library preparation and emPCR workflow. These improvements will further ease the transition of projects from traditional Sanger capillary sequencing to 454 sequencing systems in basic and translational research laboratories around the world. The planned improvements will first become available in late 2012 and during 2013.