Micro B3/OSD is teaming up with Pacific Biosciences

We are happy to announce that Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) is now supporting Micro B3 and the Ocean Sampling Day (OSD). PacBio will contribute to the project by sequencing full-length 16S/18S rRNA gene amplicons and metagenomes from selected OSD sampling sites. This will not only allow us to compare the results with Illumina® sequencing but also give us the opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of the unique single molecule, real-time (SMRT®) technology of PacBio for marine environmental research and ocean-derived biotechnologies. 

SMRT Sequencing offers abundant benefits, especially the highest consensus accuracy and longest read lengths compared to any currently available sequencing technology. These unique capabilities make the PacBio® RS II a very attractive platform for marine environmental research where the interpretation of massive amounts of 16S/18S rRNA gene sequences and metagenomes are often limited by read length. 
We are really grateful for the support of Pacific Biosciences and looking forward to a fruitful collaboration. 
More information about Pacific Biosciences and SMRT Sequencing is available at: www.pacb.com and http://blog.pacificbiosciences.com/. Specific information for the microbial research community is available at: www.pacb.com/microbe.