MinION- A Pocket Sized

Wonder

By,
Sutrishna Ghosh
Anwesha Bose
Ananya chakraborty
CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Why Would You Use
MinION?
 About The Technology
 Setup
 Applications
 Disadvantages
 Conclusion
 Reference
 INTRODUCTION

• MinION can be called a revolutionary invention in genome sequencing.

• Creation of Oxford Nanopore Technologies.
• It uses nanopore sequencing technique.
• World’s first genome sequencer which is easily portable.
• It was first proposed in 1996.
• In 2014 Oxford Nanopore Technologies launched their first beta testing
program for MinION.
 Why Would You Use MinION?
• Very low cost compared to other next gen sequencing techniques ($1000).
• Typically designed to sequence long reads of length 1000kbp.
• Very less time consuming.
• Easily accessible and easy installation.
• Easy sample handling and recyclable.
• RNA sequencing can be done easily.
• It is a real time sequencer.
• Library preparation is not at all required.
• 1D as well as 2D sequencing.
 About The Technology
oNanopore sequencing Technology:
• Nanometer= 10^-9m
• A nano-sized pore across which electrical current passes.
• As a DNA molecule passes through it, each nucleotide changes
the current conduction differently.
• This change in current is sensed and sequencing softwares
detects the corresponding nucleotide.
Softwares used commonly: MinKNOW,
Albacore etc.
SETUP
• A protein nanopore is set in an electricity resistant polymer
membrane.
Different Parts:
1. Protein nanopore (set in an electrically resistant membrane)
2. There is an array of microscaffolds with the polymer membrane each fitted with a nanopore.
3. A sensor array chip(ASIC) is connected with each microscaffold through a channel to electrode.
 Applications:

• De Novo genome sequencing.

• Complete sequencing of bacterial , fungal, viral (DNA or RNA) genome
sequencing
• Analysis of ARG Transfer.
• Useful in reverse metagenomics and gives rapid results.
• Allows real time DNA barcoding.
• Robust detection of tandem repeats.
 Disadvantages:
• It has attracted everyone’s attention since the time of its arrival, but has
still could not compete with the other 2nd or 3rd generation sequencer
available in the markets. Because:-
1. Inter run variability
2. Low accuracy
3. Non-availability of softwares that can sequence long reads at one go.
4. Flow cell maintenance.
• Since its release in 2014, MinION has proved itself to be more than
efficient and revolutionized the way of working with genomes. The
unbelievable success and wide use of the device has become a land mark
in genome sequencing techniques. It has proved itself very much efficient
in metagenomics, epigenetics, as well as whole genome sequencing
including RNA genomes. Long read sequencing has allowed
characterization of several life threatening microbes like varicella zoster. It
is expected, the improvements regarding the accuracy of data and
computational challenges can be overcome soon in near future.
 Reference:
 Robertson JWF,et al. ;The Utility of Nanopore technology for protein and peptide
sensing,2018;Proteomics; sep;(18)
 Raza S, Ameen A; Nanopore sequencing technology: A Review;2017;IJASR;3(08)
 Shan Wei, Zachary R. Weiss and Zev Williams
G3: GENES, GENOMES, GENETICS May 1, 2018 vol. 8 no. 5 1649-1657;

 https://nanoporetech.com/products/minion
 Fraiture M.A., Saltykova A., Hoffman S. et al.; Nanopore sequencing technology: a new
route for the fast detection of unauthorized GMO;2018; Scientific reports 8; 7903(2018).
 www.genengenews.com