Accurate human genome analysis with Element Avidity sequencing

Abstract

We investigate the new sequencing technology Avidity from Element Biosciences. We show that Element whole genome sequencing achieves higher mapping and variant calling accuracy compared to Illumina sequencing at the same coverage, with larger differences at lower coverages (20x-30x). We quantify base error rates of Element reads, finding lower error rates, especially in homopolymer and tandem repeat regions. We use Element’s ability to generate paired end sequencing with longer insert sizes than typical short–read sequencing. We show that longer insert sizes result in even higher accuracy, with long insert Element sequencing giving noticeably more accurate genome analyses at all coverages.