NEXTFLEX Universal Blockers

Simplify and reduce the cost of hybridization-based target capture

Product Description

The NEXTFLEX® Universal Blockers are short DNA oligos that block non-specific hybridization between adapter sequences, enhancing specificity and reducing sequencing costs.

They are compatible with all NEXTFLEX barcodes and all other ligation and tagmentation based workflows for Illumina® and Element® sequencing platforms. Also known as adapter-blocking oligos or universal U-Block mixes, Universal Blockers prevent index-to-index cross-hybridization in TruSeq®, Nextera™ and Element® libraries.

Key Features

• Effective in blocking without being affected by index length or the presence of a unique molecular index (UMI)
• Compatible with all NEXTFLEX barcodes and all other ligation and tagmentation based workflows for Illumina and Element sequencing platforms
• Simplifies and reduces the cost of target capture without sacrificing performance
  
  

How adapter-blocking oligos increase on-target reads

During target enrichment, adapters can interact with the complementary adapter sequence strand of another library molecule. The NEXTFLEX Universal Blockers are designed to prevent this concatemerization of library molecules. By blocking this complementary adapter sequence interaction, the number of on-target reads improves dramatically and the depth of enrichment increases.

One set of blockers for all applications

The NEXTFLEX Universal Blockers are designed for use with indexed adapters for Illumina sequencing platforms. They are effective in blocking single-indexed or dual-indexed libraries, without being affected by index length or the presence of a unique molecular index (UMI).

Figure 1. NEXTFLEX Universal Blockers (UB) work from 0-19 bp unblocked regions (barcodes and/or UMIs). Competitor A1- and A-3 are two separate products from Competitor A.

Figure 2. NEXTFLEX Universal Blockers can block Illumina TruSeq™ or Nextera™ -style libraries. Competitor A1- and A-2 are two separate products from Competitor A.

Compatibility

• Ligation-based workflows, such as NEXTFLEX or Illumina TruSeq library prep kits, and with any libraries prepared with NEXTFLEX Dual-Index Barcodes or NEXTFLEX Unique Dual Index Barcodes
• Tagmentation-based workflows, such as Illumina Nextera library prep kits

Questions?

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