Since earlier this year, the Soil Microbial Ecology Group of Neiker (SMEG) is collaborating on DNA sequencing with our “sister” research centre Tecnalia, in Miñano (Alaba). The collaborating team in Tecnalia, lead by Dr. Javier Margareto, has solid expertise on molecular methods including sequencing, and equipment including an Illumina MiSeq sequencing machine. This is the same technology that we have utilised earlier in SMEG for profiling of environmental microbial communities, using taxonomic markers such as 16S and 18S ribosomal RNA (for bacteria, archaea and eukaryota), and the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS; for fungi). Until now, however, we have out-licensed sequencing, taking advantage of the facility of the Centre for Genomic Research at Liverpool University, which has been very helpful and professional, and helped us to establish our amplicon sequencing protocol. Thanks to the new collaboration, Tecnalia has also managed to adopt our protocol, allowing us to do sequencing “closer to home”.
Earlier this summer, an amplicon library previously sequenced in Liverpool was re-analysed at Tecnalia, as a benchmark. The results looked good with a similar error profile and close to identical outcome, as expected. Since then, two more MiSeqs run have been successfully carried out and two more are planned for the near future.
