Anyone know a DNA barcoding service in the U.S.?

Nature Talk
1

I’m looking for a company that will accept a tissue sample (e.g. a spider leg) and provide the DNA barcode for the organism. Many years ago I was using Quintara Biosciences, but they stopped accepting tissue samples. Then I tried biome-id in Germany. They were great, but shipping tissue samples in alcohol across international borders was a nightmare. I had to fill out half a dozen forms, and it would still get held up at customs. Then I started using LifeScanner, which was also great (although they only do one-directional sequencing and don’t provide traces). LifeScanner is no longer selling their sample kits, however, so I can’t use them either.

There are lots of DNA sequencing services outside the U.S: AllGenetics in Spain; CCDB in Canada; GeneLethu in South Africa; Genetika Science in Indonesia, etc., but I can’t seem to find any in the U.S. that accept tissue samples (rather than already extracted DNA) and aren’t specific to one type of organism (seafood, bacteria, etc.). Anyone have a lead for me?

5 Likes
2

Coincidental timing on this post-- I emailed LifeScanner about their kits earlier today. I just got an email back from them, apparently all their resources have been directed towards COVID testing and the kits will not be available again “until we see a reprieve from the pandemic.”.

2 Likes
3

I’ve been curious about this as well.

4

maybe telling an idiocy, but what about Qiagen ? Think they have a subsidiary in US…

5

Maybe look into your local universities? Many have in house Sanger or Next Generation sequencing facilities that will handle outside samples and some have biospecimen preparation services. I don’t see DNA barcoding specifically listed as a service at my local university, but I’m sure they have the capability.

Actually, just came across some explicit examples:
Northeastern for seafood: https://www.northeastern.edu/ogl/barcoding/
U Guelph (should have been obvious based on their DNA barcoding work): https://biodiversitygenomics.net/services/

Possible companies to look into:
IDT
Eurofins

6

I’ve tried local universities, but haven’t found any that offer biospecimen preparation services for people unaffiliated with the university. I once got a grad student to do it for me, but they didn’t really know what they were doing and the results were too poor quality to use.

Northeastern: Already investigated, but they only do seafood
U Guelph: In Canada
IDT: Seems to sell DNA sequencing technologies and products, but as far as I can tell, doesn’t do DNA sequencing as a service

It looks like Eurofins might be an option. Despite the name, they do have laboratories in the United States. According to their website, they offer DNA extraction and DNA sequencing services. I’ll email them and see.

7

Qiagen, like IDT, sells DNA sequencing technology and products, but I don’t think they offer it as a service.

8

UC Berkeley does biospecimen preparation - https://qb3.berkeley.edu/facility/genomics/services/biospecimen-processing/

Guelph - was thinking Canada would be easier than the EU

Looked through all my spam emails - Novogene also does sequencing, maybe also sample prep? Not sure if they will do just DNA barcode, but they offer full genome for eukaryotes

You could also check out GeneWiz - https://www.genewiz.com. (just found them via google - they do sample prep and targeted NGS)

I’ve always had good interactions with Eurofins, but I’ve never done sequencing with them. We do sequencing in-house, so I’ve never had to send samples out.

Best of luck!

9

I just chanced across a paper from an Alaskan wildllfe refuge that used RTL for DNA barcoding - if you dig into their FAQ’s, it appears they do accept “unextracted” samples…

https://rtlgenomics.com/submissionfaq

1 Like
10

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.