Design and coverage of the Respiratory Virus Oligos Panel v2 (RVOP v2)

What is the design rationale for the Illumina Respiratory Virus Oligos Panel version 2 (RVOP v2)? The RVOP v2 panel targets common respiratory viruses, recent flu strains, and the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Specifically, the panel targets 41 different viruses from 8 different viral families, as described in Table 3 of the Application Note linked here.

What are the advantages of an enrichment-based approach for respiratory virus detection? Target enrichment allows for highly sensitive detection without requiring the high read depth needed for shotgun metagenomics sequencing. Additionally, this workflow allows for near-complete sequence data of targets and opens up applications such as variant analysis for viral evolution or viral surveillance.

Does this panel cover the full SARS-CoV-2 genome? The RVOP v2 panel targets the full SARS-CoV-2 genome. Coverage will depend on the titer and quality of the sample.

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