The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contracted with laboratories to sequence the SARS-CoV-2 genome from positive samples across the United States to enable public health officials to investigate the impact of variants on disease severity as well as the effectiveness of vaccines and treatment. Herein we present the initial results correlating RT-PCR quality control metrics with sample collection and sequencing methods from full SARS-CoV-2 viral genomic sequencing of 24,441 positive patient samples between April and June 2021. RT-PCR confirmed (N Gene Ct value < 30) positive patient samples, with nucleic acid extracted from saliva, nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs were selected for viral whole genome SARS-CoV-2 sequencing. Sequencing was performed using Illumina COVIDSeq™ protocol on either the NextSeq550 or NovaSeq6000 systems. Informatic variant calling, and lineage analysis were performed using DRAGEN COVID Lineage applications on IlluminaR
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Despite our differences, human beings share 99.9% of the genome. In other words, we all differ by a mere 0.1% of genes, which triggers the difference in the way we appear, grow, and develop.
Over 80% of rare diseases are caused by genetic mutations in that miniscule difference, and it’s estimated that such undiagnosed diseases affect about 8% of our population. Detecting such diseases is challenging, but researchers are working on new promising techniques.
Potential forms of diagnosis for rare and undiagnosed diseases include:
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Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), which refers to all large-scale DNA sequencing methods that allows for mapping the entire genome (whole genome sequencing);