A rapid, low-cost, and highly sensitive SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic based on whole-genome sequencing

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 18; no. 11; p. e0294283
• Main Authors: Adastra, Per A, Durand, Neva C, Mitra, Namita, Pulido, Saul Godinez, Mahajan, Ragini, Blackburn, Alyssa, Colaric, Zane L, Theisen, Joshua W. M, Weisz, David, Dudchenko, Olga, Gnirke, Andreas, Rao, Suhas S. P, Kaur, Parwinder, Aiden, Erez Lieberman, Aiden, Aviva Presser
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco, CA USA Public Library of Science 30-11-2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Analysis; Biology and life sciences; Coronaviruses; Diagnostic equipment (Medical); Disease transmission; DNA sequencing; Economic aspects; Epidemics; Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; Genomes; Genomics; Health aspects; Infection; Information management; Lab Protocol; Medical research; Medicine and health sciences; Medicine, Experimental; Nucleotide sequencing; Research and Analysis Methods; United States
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294283

Early detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection is key to managing the current global pandemic, as evidence shows the virus is most contagious on or before symptom onset. Here, we introduce a low-cost, high-throughput method for diagnosing and studying SARS-CoV-2 infection. Dubbed Pathogen-Oriented Low-Cost Assembly & Re-Sequencing (POLAR), this method amplifies the entirety of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. This contrasts with typical RT-PCR-based diagnostic tests, which amplify only a few loci. To achieve this goal, we combine a SARS-CoV-2 enrichment method developed by the ARTIC Network (