Performance Comparison between Rapid Sequencing Platforms for Ultra-Low Coverage Sequencing Strategy

Ultra-low coverage sequencing (ULCS) is one of the most promising strategies for sequencing based clinical application. These clinical applications, especially prenatal diagnosis, have a strict requirement of turn-around-time; therefore, the application of ULCS is restricted by current high throughput sequencing platforms. Recently, the emergence of rapid sequencing platforms, such as MiSeq and Ion Proton, brings ULCS strategy into a new era. The comparison of their performance could shed lights on their potential application in large-scale clinic trials. In this study, we performed ULCS (<0.1X coverage) on both MiSeq and Ion Proton platforms for 18 spontaneous abortion fetuses carrying aneuploidy and compared their performance on different levels. Overall basic data and GC bias showed no significant difference between these two platforms. We also found the sex and aneuploidy detection indicated 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity on both platforms. Our study generated essential data from these two rapid sequencing platforms, which provides useful reference for later research and potentially accelerates the clinical applications of ULCS.