Table 1.

Performance COMPARISON of seven sequencing instruments.

Platform	Sequencing rules	Advantages	Disadvantages	Signal received
Shotgun sequencing	Dideoxy chain termination method, capillary electrophoresis	Accuracy 99.999%, Reads 1,000 bp, High accuracy of processing repeated base, De novo	Low-throughput, high cost	Fluorescence
Roche 454	Pyrophosphate sequencing, SBS, Emulsion PCR	Accuracy 99%, Reads 400–600 bp, Parallel sequencing	Base insertion and deletion errors	Light
Illumina	SBS, Bridge PCR, Reversible terminator	Accuracy 99%, Reads 75–300 bp, Parallel sequencing	Base substitution error	Fluorescence
ABI solid	SBL, Emulsion PCR, Solid phase template shift, Two base encoding	Accuracy 99.94%, Reads 40 bp, Parallel sequencing, each base for sequencing twice	Prone to continuous base interpretation errors	Fluorescence
ABI/Ion torrent	Semiconductor sequencing, SBS, Emulsion PCR	Accuracy 99%, reads 200 bp, Parallel sequencing No light/fluorescence detection system	Difficult to identify homopolymers >8 bases, Base insertion and deletion errors	Electrical signal
Pacific bioscience	SMRT, SBS	Sequencing without PCR Detecting methylated bases average reads 10–15 kb	Random errors (5–15%) for a base, repeated sequencing can correct random errors	Fluorescence
Oxford nanopore	Nanopore sequencing Single-molecule sequencing, Direct detection of bases	Sequencing without PCR, No light/fluorescence detection system, Detecting methylated bases average reads 10–15 kb, longest to 40 kb	Random errors (5–15%) for a base, Repeated sequencing can correct random errors	Electrical signal

SBS, sequencing by synthesis; SLB, sequence by ligation; ssDNA, single-stranded DNA; SMRT, single molecular real time sequencing. Solid (sequencing by oligonucleotide Ligation and Detection).