Robust long-read native DNA sequencing using the ONT CsgG Nanopore system

Exploring the Frontiers of Nanopore Sequencing in Food Safety and Food Microbiology

Foodborne illnesses are a significant global public health challenge, with an estimated 600 million cases annually. Conventional food microbiology methods tend to be laborious and time consuming, pose difficulties in real-time utilization, and can display subpar accuracy or typing capabilities. With the recent advancements in third-generation sequencing and microbial omics, nanopore sequencing technology and its long-read sequencing capabilities have emerged as a promising platform. In recent years, nanopore sequencing technology has been benchmarked for its amplicon sequencing, whole-genome and transcriptome analysis, meta-analysis, and other advanced omics approaches. This review comprehensively covers nanopore sequencing technology's current advances in food safety applications, including outbreak investigation, pathogen surveillance, and antimicrobial resistance profiling. Despite significant progress, ongoing research and development are crucial to overcoming challenges in sequencing chemistry, accuracy, bioinformatics, and real-time adaptive sampling to fully realize nanopore sequencing technology's potential in food safety and food microbiology.

Applications of Nanopore sequencing in precision cancer medicine

Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing, also referred to as Nanopore sequencing, stands at the forefront of a revolution in clinical genetics, offering the potential for rapid, long read, and real-time DNA and RNA sequencing. This technology is currently making sequencing more accessible and affordable. In this comprehensive review, we explore its potential regarding precision cancer diagnostics and treatment. We encompass a critical analysis of clinical cases where Nanopore sequencing was successfully applied to identify point mutations, splice variants, gene fusions, epigenetic modifications, non-coding RNAs, and other pivotal biomarkers that defined subsequent treatment strategies. Additionally, we address the challenges of clinical applications of Nanopore sequencing and discuss the current efforts to overcome them.

Protein nanopore-based sensors for public health analyte detection

High-throughput and label-free protein nanopore-based sensors are extensively used in DNA sequencing, single-protein analysis, molecular sensing and chemical catalysis with single channel recording. These technologies show great potential for identifying various harmful substances linked to public health by addressing the limitations of current portability and the speed of existing techniques. In this review, we provide an overview of the fundamental principles of nanopore sensing, with a focus on chemical modification and genetic engineering strategies aimed at enhancing the detection sensitivity and identification accuracy of protein nanopores. The engineered protein nanopores enable direct sensing, while the introduction of aptamers and substrates enables indirect sensing, translating the physical structure and chemical properties of analytes into readable signals. These scientific discoveries and engineering efforts have provided new prospects for detecting and monitoring trace hazardous substances.

Engineering Biological Nanopore Approaches toward Protein Sequencing

Biotechnological innovations have vastly improved the capacity to perform large-scale protein studies, while the methods we have for identifying and quantifying individual proteins are still inadequate to perform protein sequencing at the single-molecule level. Nanopore-inspired systems devoted to understanding how single molecules behave have been extensively developed for applications in genome sequencing. These nanopore systems are emerging as prominent tools for protein identification, detection, and analysis, suggesting realistic prospects for novel protein sequencing. This review summarizes recent advances in biological nanopore sensors toward protein sequencing, from the identification of individual amino acids to the controlled translocation of peptides and proteins, with attention focused on device and algorithm development and the delineation of molecular mechanisms with the aid of simulations. Specifically, the review aims to offer recommendations for the advancement of nanopore-based protein sequencing from an engineering perspective, highlighting the need for collaborative efforts across multiple disciplines. These efforts should include chemical conjugation, protein engineering, molecular simulation, machine-learning-assisted identification, and electronic device fabrication to enable practical implementation in real-world scenarios.

Protein engineering of pores for separation, sensing, and sequencing

Proteins are critical to cellular function and survival. They are complex molecules with precise structures and chemistries, which allow them to serve diverse functions for maintaining overall cell homeostasis. Since the discovery of the first enzyme in 1833, a gamut of advanced experimental and computational tools has been developed and deployed for understanding protein structure and function. Recent studies have demonstrated the ability to redesign/alter natural proteins for applications in industrial processes of interest and to make customized, novel synthetic proteins in the laboratory through protein engineering. We comprehensively review the successes in engineering pore-forming proteins and correlate the amino acid-level biochemistry of different pore modification strategies to the intended applications limited to nucleotide/peptide sequencing, single-molecule sensing, and precise molecular separations.

High-Voltage Biomolecular Sensing Using a Bacteriophage Portal Protein Covalently Immobilized within a Solid-State Nanopore

The application of nanopores as label-free, single-molecule biosensors for electrical or optical probing of structural features in biomolecules has been widely explored. While biological nanopores (membrane proteins and bacteriophage portal proteins) and solid-state nanopores (thin films and two-dimensional materials) have been extensively employed, the third class of nanopores known as hybrid nanopores, where an artificial membrane substitutes the organic support membrane of proteins, has been only sparsely studied due to challenges in implementation. G20c portal protein contains a natural DNA pore that is used by viruses for filling their capsid with viral genomic DNA. We have previously developed a lipid-free hybrid nanopore by "corking" the G20c portal protein into a SiN_x nanopore. Herein, we demonstrate that through chemical functionalization of the synthetic nanopore, covalent linkage between the solid-state pore and the G20c portal protein considerably improves the hybrid pore stability, lifetime, and voltage resilience. Moreover, we demonstrate electric-field-driven and motor protein-mediated transport of DNA molecules through this hybrid nanopore. Our integrated protein/solid-state device can serve as a robust and durable framework for sensing and sequencing at high voltages, potentially providing higher resolution, higher signal-to-noise ratio, and higher throughput compared to the more conventional membrane-embedded protein platforms.

Docking and Activity of DNA Polymerase on Solid-State Nanopores

Integration of motor enzymes with biological nanopores has enabled commercial DNA sequencing technology; yet studies of the similar principle applying to solid-state nanopores are limited. Here, we demonstrate the real-life monitoring of phi29 DNA polymerase (DNAP) docking onto truncated-pyramidal nanopore (TPP) arrays through both electrical and optical readout. To achieve effective docking, atomic layer deposition of hafnium oxide is employed to reduce the narrowest pore opening size of original silicon (Si) TPPs to sub-10 nm. On a single TPP with pore opening size comparable to DNAP, ionic current measurements show that a polymerase-DNA complex can temporally dock onto the TPP with a certain docking orientation, while the majority become translocation events. On 5-by-5 TPP arrays, a label-free optical detection method using Ca²⁺ sensitive dye, are employed to detect the docking dynamics of DNAP. The results show that this label-free detection strategy is capable of accessing the docking events of DNAP on TPP arrays. Finally, we examine the activity of docked DNAP by performing on-site rolling circle amplification to synthesize single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), which serves as a proof-of-concept demonstration of utilizing this docking scheme for emerging nanopore sensing applications.

New Insights for Biosensing: Lessons from Microbial Defense Systems

Microorganisms have gained defense systems during the lengthy process of evolution over millions of years. Such defense systems can protect them from being attacked by invading species (e.g., CRISPR-Cas for establishing adaptive immune systems and nanopore-forming toxins as virulence factors) or enable them to adapt to different conditions (e.g., gas vesicles for achieving buoyancy control). These microorganism defense systems (MDS) have inspired the development of biosensors that have received much attention in a wide range of fields including life science research, food safety, and medical diagnosis. This Review comprehensively analyzes biosensing platforms originating from MDS for sensing and imaging biological analytes. We first describe a basic overview of MDS and MDS-inspired biosensing platforms (e.g., CRISPR-Cas systems, nanopore-forming proteins, and gas vesicles), followed by a critical discussion of their functions and properties. We then discuss several transduction mechanisms (optical, acoustic, magnetic, and electrical) involved in MDS-inspired biosensing. We further detail the applications of the MDS-inspired biosensors to detect a variety of analytes (nucleic acids, peptides, proteins, pathogens, cells, small molecules, and metal ions). In the end, we propose the key challenges and future perspectives in seeking new and improved MDS tools that can potentially lead to breakthrough discoveries in developing a new generation of biosensors with a combination of low cost; high sensitivity, accuracy, and precision; and fast detection. Overall, this Review gives a historical review of MDS, elucidates the principles of emulating MDS to develop biosensors, and analyzes the recent advancements, current challenges, and future trends in this field. It provides a unique critical analysis of emulating MDS to develop robust biosensors and discusses the design of such biosensors using elements found in MDS, showing that emulating MDS is a promising approach to conceptually advancing the design of biosensors.

Control of subunit stoichiometry in single-chain MspA nanopores

Transmembrane protein channels enable fast and highly sensitive detection of single molecules. Nanopore sequencing of DNA was achieved using an engineered Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A (MspA) in combination with a motor enzyme. Due to its favorable channel geometry, the octameric MspA pore exhibits the highest current level compared with other pore proteins. To date, MspA is the only protein nanopore with a published record of DNA sequencing. While widely used in commercial devices, nanopore sequencing of DNA suffers from significant base-calling errors due to stochastic events of the complex DNA-motor-pore combination and the contribution of up to five nucleotides to the signal at each position. Different mutations in specific subunits of a pore protein offer an enormous potential to improve nucleotide resolution and sequencing accuracy. However, individual subunits of MspA and other oligomeric protein pores are randomly assembled in vivo and in vitro, preventing the efficient production of designed pores with different subunit mutations. In this study, we converted octameric MspA into a single-chain pore by connecting eight subunits using peptide linkers. Lipid bilayer experiments demonstrated that single-chain MspA formed membrane-spanning channels and discriminated all four nucleotides identical to MspA produced from monomers in DNA hairpin experiments. Single-chain constructs comprising three, five, six, and seven connected subunits assembled to functional channels, demonstrating a remarkable plasticity of MspA to different subunit stoichiometries. Thus, single-chain MspA constitutes a new milestone in the optimization of MspA as a biosensor for DNA sequencing and many other applications by enabling the production of pores with distinct subunit mutations and pore diameters.

Controlled movement of ssDNA conjugated peptide through Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A (MspA) nanopore by a helicase motor for peptide sequencing application

The lack of an efficient, low-cost sequencing method has long been a significant bottleneck in protein research and applications. In recent years, the nanopore platform has emerged as a fast and inexpensive method for single-molecule nucleic acid sequencing, but attempts to apply it to protein/peptide sequencing have resulted in limited success. Here we report a strategy to control peptide translocation through the MspA nanopore, which could serve as the first step toward strand peptide sequencing. By conjugating the target peptide to a helicase-regulated handle-ssDNA, we achieved a read length of up to 17 amino acids (aa) and demonstrated the feasibility of distinguishing between amino acid residues of different charges or between different phosphorylation sites. Further improvement of resolution may require engineering MspA-M2 to reduce its constriction zone's size and stretch the target peptide inside the nanopore to minimize random thermal motion. We believe that our method in this study can significantly accelerate the development and commercialization of nanopore-based peptide sequencing technologies.

Nanopore sequencing technology, bioinformatics and applications

Rapid advances in nanopore technologies for sequencing single long DNA and RNA molecules have led to substantial improvements in accuracy, read length and throughput. These breakthroughs have required extensive development of experimental and bioinformatics methods to fully exploit nanopore long reads for investigations of genomes, transcriptomes, epigenomes and epitranscriptomes. Nanopore sequencing is being applied in genome assembly, full-length transcript detection and base modification detection and in more specialized areas, such as rapid clinical diagnoses and outbreak surveillance. Many opportunities remain for improving data quality and analytical approaches through the development of new nanopores, base-calling methods and experimental protocols tailored to particular applications.

Nanopore Single-Molecule Sequencing for Mitochondrial DNA Methylation Analysis: Investigating Parkin-Associated Parkinsonism as a Proof of Concept

Objective: To establish a workflow for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) CpG methylation using Nanopore whole-genome sequencing and perform first pilot experiments on affected Parkin biallelic mutation carriers (Parkin-PD) and healthy controls. Background: Mitochondria, including mtDNA, are established key players in Parkinson's disease (PD) pathogenesis. Mutations in Parkin, essential for degradation of damaged mitochondria, cause early-onset PD. However, mtDNA methylation and its implication in PD is understudied. Herein, we establish a workflow using Nanopore sequencing to directly detect mtDNA CpG methylation and compare mtDNA methylation between Parkin-related PD and healthy individuals. Methods: To obtain mtDNA, whole-genome Nanopore sequencing was performed on blood-derived from five Parkin-PD and three control subjects. In addition, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived midbrain neurons from four of these patients with PD and the three control subjects were investigated. The workflow was validated, using methylated and unmethylated 897 bp synthetic DNA samples at different dilution ratios (0, 50, 100% methylation) and mtDNA without methylation. MtDNA CpG methylation frequency (MF) was detected using Nanopolish and Megalodon. Results: Across all blood-derived samples, we obtained a mean coverage of 250.3X (SD ± 80.5X) and across all neuron-derived samples 830X (SD ± 465X) of the mitochondrial genome. We detected overall low-level CpG methylation from the blood-derived DNA (mean MF ± SD = 0.029 ± 0.041) and neuron-derived DNA (mean MF ± SD = 0.019 ± 0.035). Validation of the workflow, using synthetic DNA samples showed that highly methylated DNA molecules were prone to lower Guppy Phred quality scores and thereby more likely to fail Guppy base-calling. CpG methylation in blood- and neuron-derived DNA was significantly lower in Parkin-PD compared to controls (Mann-Whitney U-test p < 0.05). Conclusion: Nanopore sequencing is a useful method to investigate mtDNA methylation architecture, including Guppy-failed reads is of importance when investigating highly methylated sites. We present a mtDNA methylation workflow and suggest methylation variability across different tissues and between Parkin-PD patients and controls as an initial model to investigate.

Application of Oxford Nanopore Technology to Plant Virus Detection

The adoption of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) sequencing as a tool in plant virology has been relatively slow despite its promise in more recent years to yield large quantities of long nucleotide sequences in real time without the need for prior amplification. The portability of the MinION and Flongle platforms combined with lowering costs and continued improvements in read accuracy make ONT an attractive method for both low- and high-scale virus diagnostics. Here, we provide a detailed step-by-step protocol using the ONT Flongle platform that we have developed for the routine application on a range of symptomatic post-entry quarantine and domestic surveillance plant samples. The aim of this methods paper is to highlight ONT’s feasibility as a valuable component to the diagnostician’s toolkit and to hopefully stimulate other laboratories towards the eventual goal of integrating high-throughput sequencing technologies as validated plant virus diagnostic methods in their own right.

Modelling single-molecule kinetics of helicase translocation using high-resolution nanopore tweezers (SPRNT)

Single-molecule picometer resolution nanopore tweezers (SPRNT) is a technique for monitoring the motion of individual enzymes along a nucleic acid template at unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. We review the development of SPRNT and the application of single-molecule kinetics theory to SPRNT data to develop a detailed model of helicase motion along a single-stranded DNA substrate. In this review, we present three examples of questions SPRNT can answer in the context of the Superfamily 2 helicase Hel308. With Hel308, SPRNT's spatiotemporal resolution enables resolution of two distinct enzymatic substates, one which is dependent upon ATP concentration and one which is ATP independent. By analyzing dwell-time distributions and helicase back-stepping, we show, in detail, how SPRNT can be used to determine the nature of these observed steps. We use dwell-time distributions to discern between three different possible models of helicase backstepping. We conclude by using SPRNT's ability to discern an enzyme's nucleotide-specific location along a DNA strand to understand the nature of sequence-specific enzyme kinetics and show that the sequence within the helicase itself affects both step dwell-time and backstepping probability while translocating on single-stranded DNA.

Biological Nanopores: Engineering on Demand

Nanopore-based sensing is a powerful technique for the detection of diverse organic and inorganic molecules, long-read sequencing of nucleic acids, and single-molecule analyses of enzymatic reactions. Selected from natural sources, protein-based nanopores enable rapid, label-free detection of analytes. Furthermore, these proteins are easy to produce, form pores with defined sizes, and can be easily manipulated with standard molecular biology techniques. The range of possible analytes can be extended by using externally added adapter molecules. Here, we provide an overview of current nanopore applications with a focus on engineering strategies and solutions.

A dual-constriction biological nanopore resolves homonucleotide sequences with high fidelity

Single-molecule long-read DNA sequencing with biological nanopores is fast and high-throughput but suffers reduced accuracy in homonucleotide stretches. We now combine the CsgG nanopore with the 35-residue N-terminal region of its extracellular interaction partner CsgF to produce a dual-constriction pore with improved signal and basecalling accuracy for homopolymer regions. The electron cryo-microscopy structure of CsgG in complex with full-length CsgF shows that the 33 N-terminal residues of CsgF bind inside the β-barrel of the pore, forming a defined second constriction. In complexes of CsgG bound to a 35-residue CsgF constriction peptide, the second constriction is separated from the primary constriction by ~25 Å. We find that both constrictions contribute to electrical signal modulation upon ssDNA translocation. DNA sequencing using a prototype CsgG:CsgF protein pore with two constrictions improved single-read accuracy by 25 to 70 % in homopolymers up to 9 nucleotides long.

Multiplexed Nanopore Sequencing of HLA-B Locus in Māori and Pacific Island Samples

The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system encodes the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC). HLA-B is the most polymorphic gene in the MHC class I region and many HLA-B alleles have been associated with adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and disease susceptibility. The frequency of such HLA-B alleles varies by ethnicity, and therefore it is important to understand the prevalence of such alleles in different population groups. Research into HLA involvement in ADRs would be facilitated by improved methods for genotyping key HLA-B alleles. Here, we describe an approach to HLA-B typing using next generation sequencing (NGS) on the MinION™ nanopore sequencer, combined with data analysis with the SeqNext-HLA software package. The nanopore sequencer offers the advantages of long-read capability and single molecule reads, which can facilitate effective haplotyping. We developed this method using reference samples as well as individuals of New Zealand Māori or Pacific Island descent, because HLA-B diversity in these populations is not well understood. We demonstrate here that nanopore sequencing of barcoded, pooled, 943 bp polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplicons of 49 DNA samples generated ample read depth for all samples. HLA-B alleles were assigned to all samples at high-resolution with very little ambiguity. Our method is a scaleable and efficient approach for genotyping HLA-B and potentially any other HLA locus. Finally, we report our findings on HLA-B genotypes of this cohort, which adds to our understanding of HLA-B allele frequencies among Māori and Pacific Island people.

The potential impact of nanopore sequencing on human genetics

Nanopore sequencing has been available to researchers for a little over 3 years. Recently, the milestone of sequencing and assembling a human genome on this platform was achieved for the first time. Significant improvements to the platform in yield and accuracy, coupled with higher throughput nanopore sequencers, mean that human genome sequencing at scale is now possible. Here, a brief recent history of the nanopore platform is provided, key papers and innovations are highlighted and some of the challenges for the future are discussed.

Determining the Physical Properties of Molecules with Nanometer-Scale Pores

Nanometer-scale pores have been developed for the detection, characterization, and quantification of a wide range of analytes (e.g., ions, polymers, proteins, anthrax toxins, neurotransmitters, and synthetic nanoparticles) and for DNA sequencing. We describe the key requirements that made this method possible and how the technique evolved. Finally, we show that, despite sound theoretical work, which advanced both the conceptual framework and quantitative capability of the method, there are still unresolved questions that need to be addressed to further improve the technique.

DNA-assisted oligomerization of pore-forming toxin monomers into precisely-controlled protein channels

We have developed a novel approach for creating membrane-spanning protein-based pores. The construction principle is based on using well-defined, circular DNA nanostructures to arrange a precise number of pore-forming protein toxin monomers. We can thereby obtain, for the first time, protein pores with specifically set diameters. We demonstrate this principle by constructing artificial alpha-hemolysin (αHL) pores. The DNA/αHL hybrid nanopores composed of twelve, twenty or twenty-six monomers show stable insertions into lipid bilayers during electrical recordings, along with steady, pore size-dependent current levels. Our approach successfully advances the applicability of nanopores, in particular towards label-free studies of single molecules in large nanoscaled biological structures.