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Background The throughput of next-generation sequencing machines has increased dramatically over the last few years; yet the cost and time for library preparation have not changed proportionally, thus representing the main bottleneck for sequencing large numbers of samples. Here we present an economical, high-throughput library preparation method for the Illumina platform, comprising a 96-well based method for DNA isolation for yeast cells, a low-cost DNA shearing alternative, and adapter ligation using heat inactivation of enzymes instead of bead cleanups. Results Up to 384 whole-genome libraries can be prepared from yeast cells in one week using this method, for less than 15 euros per sample. We demonstrate the robustness of this protocol by sequencing over 1000 yeast genomes at ~30x coverage. The sequence information from 768 yeast segregants derived from two divergent S. cerevisiae strains was used to generate a meiotic recombination map at unprecedented resolution. Comparisons to other datasets indicate a high conservation of recombination at a chromosome-wide scale, but differences at the local scale. Additionally, we detected a high degree of aneuploidy (3.6%) by examining the sequencing coverage in these segregants. Differences in allele frequency allowed us to attribute instances of aneuploidy to gains of chromosomes during meiosis or mitosis, both of which showed a strong tendency to missegregate specific chromosomes. Conclusions Here we present a high throughput workflow to sequence genomes of large number of yeast strains at a low price. We have used this workflow to obtain recombination and aneuploidy data from hundreds of segregants, which can serve as a foundation for future studies of linkage, recombination, and chromosomal aberrations in yeast and higher eukaryotes.

Background Porphyromonas gingivalis is a Gram-negative anaerobic bacterium associated with periodontal disease onset and progression. Genetic tools for the manipulation of bacterial genomes allow for in-depth mechanistic studies of metabolism, physiology, interspecies and host-pathogen interactions. Analysis of the essential genes, protein-coding sequences necessary for survival of P. gingivalis by transposon mutagenesis has not previously been attempted due to the limitations of available transposon systems for the organism. We adapted a Mariner transposon system for mutagenesis of P. gingivalis and created an insertion mutant library. By analyzing the location of insertions using massively-parallel sequencing technology we used this mutant library to define genes essential for P. gingivalis survival under in vitro conditions. Results In mutagenesis experiments we identified 463 genes in P. gingivalis strain ATCC 33277 that are putatively essential for viability in vitro. Comparing the 463 P. gingivalis essential genes with previous essential gene studies, 364 of the 463 are homologues to essential genes in other species; 339 are shared with more than one other species. Twenty-five genes are known to be essential in P. gingivalis and B. thetaiotaomicron only. Significant enrichment of essential genes within Cluster of Orthologous Groups ‘D’ (cell division), ‘I’ (lipid transport and metabolism) and ‘J’ (translation/ribosome) were identified. Previously, the P. gingivalis core genome was shown to encode 1,476 proteins out of a possible 1,909; 434 of 463 essential genes are contained within the core genome. Thus, for the species P. gingivalis twenty-two, seventy-seven and twenty-three percent of the genome respectively are devoted to essential, core and accessory functions. Conclusions A Mariner transposon system can be adapted to create mutant libraries in P. gingivalis amenable to analysis by next-generation sequencing technologies. In silico analysis of genes essential for in vitro growth demonstrates that although the majority are homologous across bacterial species as a whole, species and strain-specific subsets are apparent. Understanding the putative essential genes of P. gingivalis will provide insights into metabolic pathways and niche adaptations as well as clinical therapeutic strategies.

Background ChIP-seq is the primary technique used to investigate genome-wide protein-DNA interactions. As part of this procedure, immunoprecipitated DNA must undergo “library preparation” to enable subsequent high-throughput sequencing. To facilitate the analysis of biopsy samples and rare cell populations, there has been a recent proliferation of methods allowing sequencing library preparation from low-input DNA amounts. However, little information exists on the relative merits, performance, comparability and biases inherent to these procedures. Notably, recently developed single-cell ChIP procedures employing microfluidics must also employ library preparation reagents to allow downstream sequencing. Results In this study, seven methods designed for low-input DNA/ChIP-seq sample preparation (Accel-NGS® 2S, Bowman-method, HTML-PCR, SeqPlex™, DNA SMART™, TELP and ThruPLEX®) were performed on five replicates of 1 ng and 0.1 ng input H3K4me3 ChIP material, and compared to a “gold standard” reference PCR-free dataset. The performance of each method was examined for the prevalence of unmappable reads, amplification-derived duplicate reads, reproducibility, and for the sensitivity and specificity of peak calling. Conclusions We identified consistent high performance in a subset of the tested reagents, which should aid researchers in choosing the most appropriate reagents for their studies. Furthermore, we expect this work to drive future advances by identifying and encouraging use of the most promising methods and reagents. The results may also aid judgements on how comparable are existing datasets that have been prepared with different sample library preparation reagents. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-3135-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.