The ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 protocol from the ARTIC Network is a multiplexed amplicon approach covering the whole viral genome. The NEBNext ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 Library Prep Kit is based on this method and incorporates optimized and novel reagents.A single RT protocol is used regardless of input amount (10-10,000 viral genome copies), and no normalization step is required ahead of targeted amplification.This kit includes two options for primers, including new VarSkip Short v2 primers:
The VarSkip (for Variant Skip) Short primers have been designed at NEB to reduce the impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on amplification and provide improved performance, including with the Omicron variant. VarSkip Short v2 primer pools generate ~550bp amplicons. Please see the FAQ section and the product manual for additional detail.Information on primer variant overlaps can be foundhere.
The V3 ARTIC primers have been balanced, using methodology developed at NEB based on empirical data from sequencing. In combination with optimized reagents for RT-PCR, the kits deliver improved uniformity of amplicon yields from gRNA across a wide copy number range.
The Express protocol removes the cleanup of cDNA Amplicons.
The NEBNext ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 Companion Kit (Oxford Nanopore Technologies) is compatible with sequencing on the Oxford Nanopore Technologies platform and is used alongside kits from Oxford Nanopore Technologies to generate libraries with inserts in the 400bp range, that can be sequenced on any Oxford Nanopore Technologies instrument, in 2-24 hour run times.If Illumina-compatible libraries are preferred, the NEBNext ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 FS Library Prep Kit (Illumina) (NEB #E7658) and the NEBNext ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 Library Prep Kit (Illumina) (NEB #E7650) generate libraries with ~150 bp and ~400 bp inserts, respectively.If only the reagents for cDNA synthesis and targeted cDNA amplification are required, the NEBNext ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Module (NEB #E7626) is available.Note that E7650 does not include VarSkip v2 primers.
Figure 1: Sequence coverage of a SARS-CoV-2 Omicron clinical sample with updated primer schemesCaption: Integrative Genome Viewer visualization of read coverage across the SARS-CoV-2 genome (log scale). Amplicons were generated from the same Omicron variant SARS-CoV-2 viral gRNA clinical sample using NEBNext® VarSkip Short SARS-CoV-2 primer pools, NEBNext VarSkip Short v2 SARS-CoV-2 primer pools, MilliporeSigma ARTICv4, MilliporeSigma ARTICv4 primer pools plus IDT ARTICv4.1 spike-in primers (ARTICv4.1). Libraries were constructed using the NEBNext ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 Companion Kit (ONT) and sequenced on a GridION. Reads were down-sampled to 74000 reads with seqtk and aligned to SARS-CoV-2 reference genome (NCBI, NC_045512) with minimap2. Figure 2: Sequence coverage of a SARS-CoV-2 Delta clinical sample with updated primer schemesCaption: Integrative Genome Viewer visualization of read coverage across the SARS-CoV-2 genome (log scale). Amplicons were generated from the same Delta variant SARS-CoV-2 viral gRNA clinical sample using NEBNext® VarSkip Short SARS-CoV-2 primer pools, NEBNext VarSkip Short v2 SARS-CoV-2 primer pools, MilliporeSigma ARTICv4, MilliporeSigma ARTICv4 primer pools plus IDT ARTICv4.1 spike-in primers (ARTICv4.1). Libraries were constructed using the NEBNext ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 Companion Kit (ONT) and sequenced on GridION. Reads were down-sampled to 74000 reads with seqtk and aligned to SARS-CoV-2 reference genome (NCBI, NC_045512) with minimap2.Figure 3: Express and Standard workflows for the NEBNext ARTIC SARS-CoV-2 Companion Library Prep Kit for Oxford Nanopore with VarSkip Short v2 or NEBNext ARTIC primers
This product is related to the following categories:
Library Preparation for Oxford Nanopore Technologies,
NEBNext® ARTIC products for SARS-CoV-2 sequencing,