Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. announced that it is releasing a new software upgrade that provides higher quality genome assemblies with near perfect base level accuracy in addition to other key features. The software upgrade extends the range of projects that uniquely benefit from the company's Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT(R)) DNA Sequencing method, and will be available to customers for download on January 31, 2012. SMRT Analysis 1.4 includes a new hierarchical de novo genome assembly process (HGAP), which allows researchers to assemble entire microbial and fungal genomes solely using PacBio long reads.

As a result, users can generate better assemblies with a single library preparation and fewer SMRT(R) Cells than previous approaches that also required short-read sequencing technologies or circular consensus sequencing. SMRT Analysis 1.4 also incorporates a new multi-read consensus algorithm called Quiver to determine the finished genome sequence with exceptional accuracy. Quiver can provide greater than 99.999% consensus accuracy for both resequencing and de novo assembly applications.

The software upgrade also includes support for analyzing full-length cDNA transcripts, facilitating understanding of transcription, gene structure and alternative splicing. Unlike any other sequencing technology, SMRT Sequencing can span entire cDNA transcripts with a single read, revealing the complete exonic structure of transcripts. Additional features of the new SMRT Analysis 1.4 upgrade include: Support for analysis of barcoded samples; Improvements to the tools for analyzing and visualizing bacterial methylomes, a capability unique to SMRT Sequencing; Enhanced user and group permissions to help sequencing centers and core labs control what data is presented to end users.