Table 1.

Technical specifications of four major sequencing platforms.

Sequencing Platform		Total output (bases per run)	Total reads (million per run)	Read Length (bases)	Run time (days)	Purpose/Definition
Illumina	HiSeq X	1.6 – 1.8 Tb	6000	2×150	< 3	Allows sequencing of larger genomes (e.g. mammalian genomes) at population level
	MiSeq	300 Mb – 15 Gb	50	2×300	0.2 – 2.7	Designed for particularly small genomes (e.g. bacterial genomes) and amplicon sequencing
Life Technologies	Solid 5500 Systems	80 Gb – 320 Gb	1200 M – 2400 M	50 – 2×50 bp	7	Offers application-per- lane sequencing that allows transcriptome, exome and genome sequencing concurrently in a single run. Additionally, pay- per-lane sequencing feature makes Solid 5500 Systems cost- effective because reagent usage does not require for unused lanes.
	Ion Torrent 520 Chip	600 Mb – 2 Gb	3	200 – 400 bp	0.1	Ion S5 System allows generation of diverse sequencing data ranging from targeted re-sequencing to genome sequencing with as little as 10 ng sample.
	Ion Torrent 540 Chip	10 – 15 Gb	60	200 – 400 bp	0.1
PacBio	Sequel System	500 Mb – 16 Gb	55 – 880 M	up to 60 kb	< 0.1 – 0.3	Useful in the studies of de novo assembly of large genomes. Sequel System can be utilized for generating variation, expression and/or regulation related sequencing data.
	PacBio RS II	500 Mb – 16 Gb	55 – 880 M	up to 60 kb	< 0.1 – 0.3	Much more suitable for sequencing small genomes although animal and plant genomic studies is also possible.
Nanopore	PromethION	up to 12 Tb1	1250 M1	230 – 300 kb1	2	Ideal for large sample numbers. PromethION can sequence up to 48 samples in a single run
	MinION	up to 42 Gb1	up to 4.4 M1	230 – 300 kb1	2	Portable sequencing instrument. MinION can be run with a desktop or laptop computer and data can be performed in real time.

¹Measured at “fast” mode in which 500 bases pass through the pore per second.