Comparison between MGI and Illumina sequencing platforms for whole genome sequencing

Background Illumina next generation sequencing (NGS) systems are the major sequencing platform in worldwide next-generation sequencing market. On the other hand, MGI Tech launched a series of new NGS equipment that promises to deliver high-quality sequencing data faster and at lower prices than Illumina’s sequencing instruments. Objective In this study, we compared the performance of the two platform’s major sequencing instruments—Illumina’s NovaSeq 6000 and MGI’s MGISEQ-2000 and DNBSEQ-T7—to test whether the MGISEQ-2000 and DNBSEQ-T7 sequencing instruments are also suitable for whole genome sequencing. Methods We sequenced two pairs of normal and tumor tissues from Korean lung cancer patients using the three platforms. Then, we called single nucleotide variants (SNVs) and insertion and deletion (indels) for somatic and germline variants to compare the performance among the three platforms. Results In quality control analysis, all of the three platforms showed high-quality scores and deep coverages. Comparison among the three platforms revealed that MGISEQ-2000 is most concordant with NovaSeq 6000 for germline SNVs and indels, and DNBSEQ-T7 is most concordant with NovaSeq 6000 for somatic SNVs and indels. Conclusions These results suggest that the performances of the MGISEQ-2000 and DNBSEQ-T7 platforms are comparable to that of the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 platform and support the potential applicability of the MGISEQ-2000 and DNBSEQ-T7 platforms in actual genome analysis fields.