Genomics and Applied Biology 2024, Vol.15, No.1, 22-26 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/gab 24 2 Applications of Portable Nanopore Sequencing Technology The development of portable nanopore sequencing technology has brought revolutionary advances to the field of bioinformatics, especially showing its unique value and broad application prospects in environmental monitoring, epidemic prevention and control, and onsite rapid diagnosis. In environmental monitoring, portable nanopore sequencing technology has been used to study microbial diversity. For example, studies have shown that the MinION™ system can analyze microbial communities through 16S rRNA gene sequencing, allowing for classification and measurement of relative abundance at the species level (Benítez-Páez et al., 2015; Benítez-Páez and Sanz, 2017). This is very valuable for understanding the composition and dynamics of microbes in complex ecosystems. In the area of epidemic prevention and control, the technology has proven to be able to quickly and accurately identify and monitor pathogens. For instance, MinION™ has been used for the detection and surveillance of pathogen outbreaks, as well as the study of human genome variations (Benítez-Páez and Sanz, 2017; Magi et al., 2017). This rapid sequencing capability is crucial for responding to public health emergencies. In onsite rapid diagnostics, portable nanopore sequencing technology provides a method for species identification under field conditions. Research indicates that using the MinION device and portable laboratory equipment, researchers can generate high-accuracy consensus sequences less than 24 hours after collecting samples, thereby achieving species resolution (Pomerantz et al., 2018). This is significant for conservation efforts and speeding up species identification in research facilities in developing countries. Overall, portable nanopore sequencing technology demonstrates great application potential in environmental monitoring, epidemic prevention and control, and onsite rapid diagnostics. It not only accelerates scientific research but also plays a crucial role in biodiversity conservation, public health emergency response, and enhancing research capabilities in developing countries. 3 Challenges and Prospects of Technology Portable nanopore sequencing technology is a cutting-edge genomics technology based on single-molecule detection, which identifies nucleotide sequences by monitoring the changes in electrical current as DNA molecules pass through a nanopore. Despite this technology's significant potential in genetic testing, it still faces a range of technical challenges. 3.1 Technical challenges The challenges of nanopore sequencing include effectively detecting signals from specific bases, controlling the size and surface characteristics of the nanopore, and regulating the speed and behavior of DNA molecules as they shuttle through. A key challenge is achieving high-quality nanopore fabrication, which requires the assistance of modern micro and nano-fabrication technologies (Liu et al., 2016). Additionally, even though Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) has made notable advancements in the past two years, using nanopore data to detect small variations remains challenging. Currently, it requires combining with complementary short-read sequencing to reduce the inherent biases of nanopore sequencing technology (Magi et al., 2017). 3.2 Solutions To overcome these challenges, researchers have developed a multitude of algorithms and tools for base calling, data processing, read mapping, de novo assembly, and variant detection. The development of these tools and algorithms helps to enhance the efficiency of nanopore data utilization, especially in genome de novo assembly and structural variation discovery, achieving unprecedented accuracy and resolution (Magi et al., 2017). The research field of solid-state nanopore sequencing is also continuously expanding in terms of materials, device assembly, manufacturing methods, the shuttling process, and specific challenges (Yang et al., 2013).
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