We're in the process of trying to create our own GBS libraries for various species. The step we're having the most trouble with right now is optimizing the adapter concentration to avoid having adapter dimer in the final library. My understanding is that Illumina recommends that adapter contamination account for at most 0.5% of the library, and the protocol calls for even less. We aren't entirely clear on the appropriate way to calculate this. The bioanalyzer results gives us both concentration and molarity values for various peaks. It also gives a total concentration and molarity for the 200-1000bp range, which covers most, but not all of the library. I'm assuming we calculate using the molarity values rather than the concentration values, but I'm not sure if we use the total molarity for the 200-1000bp range they provide, or if we need to include everything else as well. That's my first question.
Even they, trying to get rid of the adapter peak is difficult at best with the titration process. Reading through the forum, it appears as though people prefer using a gel extraction to get rid of the excess adapter. However, we don't have the means to obtain or access something like a Pippen Prep; we'd have to do it by hand using a gel extraction kit. I personally have never done this before. In theory, the adapter dimer is ~130bp, and our absolute minimum size goal for the library would be 230bp (adapters + 100bp fragment), if not longer given that I believe the recommended fragment size for the Illumina platform is something like 200-300bp. In this case, would doing a gel extraction by hand be worth doing instead of trying to optimize? In terms of downstream analyses, would there be any issues or concerns to be aware of?
Thanks
Even they, trying to get rid of the adapter peak is difficult at best with the titration process. Reading through the forum, it appears as though people prefer using a gel extraction to get rid of the excess adapter. However, we don't have the means to obtain or access something like a Pippen Prep; we'd have to do it by hand using a gel extraction kit. I personally have never done this before. In theory, the adapter dimer is ~130bp, and our absolute minimum size goal for the library would be 230bp (adapters + 100bp fragment), if not longer given that I believe the recommended fragment size for the Illumina platform is something like 200-300bp. In this case, would doing a gel extraction by hand be worth doing instead of trying to optimize? In terms of downstream analyses, would there be any issues or concerns to be aware of?
Thanks
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