NextZyme - enabling new concepts for marine enzymes in Next Gen- and Single-Cell Sequencing

Next-Generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have the recent years been the key driver in molecular life sciences and the largest contributor to the growth in the world-wide genomics market. Reduced overall sequencing costs are expanding the use of seque ncing in genomics, medical research and diagnostics. One of the bottlenecks in NGS technologies is still to enrich samples and make good unbiased DNA libraries before sequencing. Recently it has also become technically feasible to sequence the genome of s ingle cells. As it presently is a nascent technology, there is a considerable challenge to reduce technical errors and contamination to improve the workflows. Ligases are important enzymes in the workflow for NGS, and more efficient ligases are sought for to improve the yield and quality of the samples, especially when preparing and analyzing minute amounts of DNA. In a collaborative project, a viral metagenome was made from the sediment from the Barents Sea and sequenced. Surprisingly, as many as 463 seq uences encoding DNA ligases were identified in the library. ArcticZymes (AZ) develops, produces and sells enzymes and kits for use in molecular DNA research and diagnostics. All products are based on enzymes isolated from the Arctic marine environment, as these enzymes have features and properties that make them advantageous for use in molecular applications. By this IPN project AZ sees the opportunity to target the NGS sample preparation market by developing two new product concepts to introduce and se ll through our large industrial customers. We will express and select DNA-ligases from the viral metagenome for use in library preparation applications for NGS. Secondly we want to develop and test a product concept for use in sample preparation for singl e cell genomics using our existing knowledge and portfolio of products. If successful, AZs concepts will add convenience, efficiency and security to sample and library preparation for the NGS technologies.