DNA extraction and Nanopore library prep from single wild-caught drosophilids
Bernard Y Kim
Abstract
We have been assembling the genomes of many Drosophila species. This protocol fork allows for the sequencing of single wild-caught flies using Nanopore MinION sequencers, in contrast to our previous protocol that originally used gDNA extracted from tens or hundreds of flies from an inbred line.
While read lengths are not nearly close to what we were seeing before, libraries range from 2-10kb read N50 and typically produce genome assemblies with contig N50 >1 Mbp.
The protocol for ultra-long read sequencing from large pools of flies can be found here: dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bdfqi3mw
For now, please cite the original genomes paper if you use this protocol: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.66405
An update that includes many single wild-caught fly genomes is in progress.
Before start
Steps
(Optional) Hydration of ethanol-fixed tissue
Place flies on a sheet of filter paper and briefly dab with a Kimwipe to remove excess ethanol, then transfer the fly to a 1.5 mL LoBind tube.
Add 500µL
Buffer STE to the tube with the fly.
Incubate on a platform rocker or rotator for 0h 15m 0s
at low to medium speed.
Replace the solution with 500µL
of fresh Buffer STE and incubate for another 0h 15m 0s
on the rocker at low to medium speed.
Use a pipette to remove as much of the liquid as possible, but do not dry the fly.
Tissue homogenization
Add 283µL
lysis buffer to the tube with the fly.
Using a pellet pestle, manually homogenize the fly tissue. While it's important to squish the fly enough so that soft tissue can be digested, it is okay for some bigger pieces of tissue, particularly those held together by tough cuticle like the legs, to remain.
Equipment
Value | Label |
---|---|
Pellet Pestle | NAME |
Kimble Kontes | BRAND |
K749520-1590 | SKU |
1.5 mL Polypropylene w/o Microtubes RNAse DNase free | SPECIFICATIONS |
Tissue lysis
Add 7.5µL
20mg/mL
Proteinase K, 7.5µL
10% SDS, and 2µL
20mg/mL
RNAse A to the tube. Gently flick and swirl to mix.
Incubate tube for 2h 0m 0s
to 4h 0m 0s
at 50°C
. Gently mix tube every 0h 45m 0s
.
Phenol chloroform extraction
Spin down 1 2mL phase lock gel tube per sample at 15000x g,0h 0m 0s
for 0h 0m 30s
.
Equipment
Value | Label |
---|---|
5PRIME Phase Lock Gel tube, light, 2mL | NAME |
Quantabio | BRAND |
2302820 | SKU |
Light | SPECIFICATIONS |
Briefly spin down the homogenate/lysis solution, then transfer to the phase lock gel tube by decanting or pipetting with a wide-bore tip.
Add an equal volume (about 350µL
) of Tris-saturated phenol chloroform isoamyl alcohol (PCI) to the phase lock tube.
Mix by placing tubes on a rocker at medium speed for 0h 8m 0s
.
Centrifuge the phase lock tube at 16000x g,0h 0m 0s
for 0h 8m 0s
. Phase lock layer should now separate aqueous and organic layers.
Perform one more PCI extraction: .
Add an equal volume (usually 350µL
) of chloroform to the tube.
Mix by placing tubes on a rocker at medium speed for 0h 8m 0s
.
Centrifuge the phase lock tube at 16000x g,0h 0m 0s
for 0h 8m 0s
. Phase lock layer should now separate aqueous and organic layers.
Quickly decant the aqueous (top) layer into a fresh 1.5 mL LoBind tube.
DNA precipitation, wash, and resuspension
Chill 100% ethanol on ice and make 500µL
of fresh 70% ethanol using nuclease-free water.
Add 0.1 volume (typically 30µL
) of 3M sodium acetate to the sample. Gently swirl to mix.
Add 2-2.5 volumes (typically 675µL
) of cold 100% ethanol to the tube, and mix with careful swirling and gentle rocking. It will be difficult to see precipitated DNA, but extractions from larger flies will usually have a few visible strands.
Centrifuge the tube at 5000x g,0h 0m 0s
for 0h 5m 0s
to pellet the DNA.
While being careful not to disturb the pellet, pipette off the ethanol.
Add 200µL
of 70% ethanol to wash the DNA. Gently swirl to mix.
Centrifuge the tube at 5000x g,0h 0m 0s
for 0h 2m 0s
.
While being careful not to disturb the pellet, pipette off the ethanol.
Wash the pellet once more: .
Allow the tube to air dry no longer than 0h 1m 0s
. Do not over-dry .
Resuspend in 42µL
10mM Tris and incubate at 50°C
for 0h 30m 0s
.
Briefly spin down tube to gather any condensation and store at 4°C
.
DNA resuspension
Pipette mix slowly 5X with a P200 tip to ensure proper resuspension.
Check sample concentration and quality of 1µL
aliquots using Qubit and Nanodrop.
Reserve DNA for short-read sequencing
Reserve at least 20ng
gDNA in 6µL
Tris for Illumina library prep. Store at -20°C
until ready for library prep.
DNA repair and end-prep
Thaw NEBNext repair and dA-tailing mixes and buffers from the Nanopore Companion Module. Mix buffers by vortexing and enzyme mixes by flicking. Spin down tubes and keep chilled on ice.
Add all non-reserved DNA (up to 40µL
) to a PCR tube. Dilute the HMW DNA with water to a final volume of 48.5µL
. Add 3.5µL
of FFPE DNA repair buffer, 3.5µL
of end-prep reaction buffer, 2µL
of FFPE DNA repair mix, and 3µL
of end-prep reaction mix to the tube. Mix tube with gentle flicking (or very gentle pipetting with a cut-off P200 tip).
In a thermal cycler, incubate at 20°C
for 1h 0m 0s
then 65°C
for 0h 30m 0s
. After this, sample can be held at 4°C
temporarily until ready to proceed.
Using a cut-off P200 tip (a wide bore will be too small to fit in the PCR tube), gently transfer sample to a 1.5 mL DNA LoBind tube. Add 60µL
AMPure beads. Using a wide-bore P200 tip, quickly but gently mix the tube.
Allow the sample to sit at least 0h 5m 0s
at Room temperature
to allow the beads to bind the DNA. Meanwhile, prepare 500µL
fresh 70% ethanol with nuclease-free water.
Pellet the beads by placing the tube onto a magnetic tube rack for 0h 5m 0s
or until sample has completely cleared.
Equipment
Value | Label |
---|---|
Magnetic 1.5 mL tube rack | NAME |
Any | BRAND |
NA | SKU |
Pipette off the supernatant, taking care not to disturb the bead pellet.
Add 175µL
of 70% ethanol. Pipette slowly, with the tip touching the front wall of the tube, so that the pellet is not disturbed.
Pipette off the supernatant, taking care not to disturb the DNA pellet.
Wash the pellet once more with 70% ethanol
Briefly spin the sample tube down and place back onto the magnet. Remove any remaining drops on the bottom of the tube with a P10.
Equipment
Value | Label |
---|---|
Magnetic 1.5 mL tube rack | NAME |
Any | BRAND |
NA | SKU |
Immediately resuspend bead pellet in 31µL
nuclease-free water.
Incubate the tube on the heat block at 50°C
for 0h 30m 0s
. Every 5 minutes, gently flick the tube to encourage any settled beads to resuspend.
Briefly spin down the tube to collect condensation then place tube back on the magnetic rack. Allow tube to sit for
0h 5m 0s
or until sample has completely cleared.
With a cut-off P200 tip, transfer 31µL
eluate to a fresh 1.5 mL LoBind tube.
Check for recovery with Qubit using 1µL
of sample. Recovery should be at least 150ng
DNA at this point.
Adapter ligation
Thaw AMXII, T4 ligase, LNB, and LFB from the NEBNext Nanopore Companion Module and the Nanopore LSK110 kit. Mix AMXII, T4 ligase, and LFB by flicking. Mix LNB by pipetting. Briefly spin the tubes down and keep chilled on ice.
Add 30µL
prepared DNA sample, 2.5µL
AMX, and 5µL
T4 ligase to a fresh 1.5 mL DNA LoBind tube. Gently flick the tube to mix.
Add 12.5µL
LNB to the sample. Working quickly, mix by gentle pipetting with a wide-bore tip. DNA precipitation is normal, but if the DNA precipitates before you finish mixing it will stick to your pipette tip and you will lose a significant amount of library.
Incubate the reaction mixture at Room temperature
for 0h 30m 0s
.
Add 20µL
AMPure beads and mix gently by flicking until uniform in color. Let sample sit for at least 0h 5m 0s
, with occasional gentle mixing if necessary, so the DNA can bind to the beads.
Pellet the beads by placing the tube onto a magnetic tube rack for 0h 5m 0s
or until sample has completely cleared.
Equipment
Value | Label |
---|---|
Magnetic 1.5 mL tube rack | NAME |
Any | BRAND |
NA | SKU |
Pipette off the supernatant, being careful not to disturb the bead pellet.
Remove tube from magnetic rack and add 100µL
of LFB to the tube, flicking to mix.
Pellet the beads by replacing the tube onto the magnetic tube rack for 0h 5m 0s
or until sample has completely cleared.
Equipment
Value | Label |
---|---|
Magnetic 1.5 mL tube rack | NAME |
Any | BRAND |
NA | SKU |
Being careful not to disturb the pellet, pipette off all the supernatant.
Remove the tube from the magnet and briefly spin down. Replace tube onto magnet and remove any remaining drops of supernatant with a P10.
Wash the pellet with LFB one more time.
Resuspend beads in 26µL
EB.
Incubate beads on the heat block at 37°C
for 0h 15m 0s
. Every 5 minutes, gently flick the tube to resuspend any settled beads.
Briefly spin down the tube to collect condensation.
Place sample tube onto magnetic rack for at least 0h 5m 0s
or until sample has cleared.
Equipment
Value | Label |
---|---|
Magnetic 1.5 mL tube rack | NAME |
Any | BRAND |
NA | SKU |
Using a cut-off P200 tip, transfer 26µL
eluate into a fresh 1.5 mL LoBind tube.
Quantify library concentration with Qubit using 1µL
of the prepared library.
Tips for sequencing the library
Thaw 1 tube sequencing buffer SBII (SQK-LSK110), 1 tube loading solution LS (SQK-LSK110), 1 tube flush buffer FB (EXP-FLP002), and 1 tube flush tether FLT (EXP-FLP002). Mix SBII, LS, and FB by flicking. Mix FLT with a pipette. Spin down and keep reagents on ice until ready to sequence.
With a cut off P200 tip, transfer at least 100ng
of prepared library to a fresh 1.5mL LoBind tube. This should not exceed 25µL
in volume (i.e. the volume of the eluate from Step 64).
Add the volume of LS that will result in a total volume of 25µL
in the LoBind tube. For example, if 15µL
of prepared library was initially added to the tube, add 10µL
of LS for a total 25µL
library + LS.
Add 25µL
SBII to the tube for a total volume of 50µL
.
Follow the official instructions to prime the flow cell, then add the prepared library to the flow cell. When loading the library, be sure to use a wide-bore pipette tip. Gently pipette mix the library before loading to ensure even distribution of the library across the flow cell membrane.
Over the course of a sequencing run, pores will get clogged and become inactive. If you have enough library, we recommend to flush the flow cell at 10-14 hour intervals to make these pores available again.