Solid vs Illumina Genome Analyzer

[pinki999]

Hello Friends,

I am supposed to decide on whether to opt for Solid or Illumina GA for my project (transcriptome analysis). Can you guys throw some light on advantages and disadvantages of both the technologies and also the cost per run.


Regards,
Pinki

[westerman]

It would be nice to know what your project is so that we can be more specific in any recommendations.

Basically the SOLiD has more reads of shorter length than the GA. This may or may not be appropriate for your project. It mainly depends on if you are detecting variants (SNPs, InDels) or trying to do more de-novo assembly work. Repetitiveness of the organism is a factor.

The cost per full run (or plate) is close to the same -- at least within a factor of 2. You will probably find that post-processing informatics will mask any differential in cost. Not all projects require full plates; e.g., re-sequencing E.coli can easily be done on a partial plate.