A Glossary sub-classification dedicated to WGS DNA Test Companies in the genetics field. As opposed to the original, traditional 2nd wave microarray test companies and earlier yDNA-only test (using CE sequencing).
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Full Genomes (FGC) was the first and early entrant in this market that supported the genetic genealogy community. Mainly supporting the haplogroup testing areas. With the entrance of Dante Labs in 2018 and their sub-$500 30x WGS, we have seen an dramatic scale-up of interest, use and support. Both companies started by offering a front-end for lab services offered by BGI in their Hong Kong lab using their own developed equipment. Both had suffered delivery problems that first year until they moved away from that service. Newcomer Nebula Genomics has started their new 30x WGS product based on this same lab but now with their new. latest equipment that competes well with Illumina's Novaseq 6000 machines. Today, the BGI machines tend to out deliver the Illumina ones.
Full Genomes (FGC) and ySeq could both be classified as much as genetic genealogy as genetics WGS testers here. The reason being they provide haplogroup analysis and tree services. Nebula and Dante have a focus on health but try to offer cross-support with third-party links for genetic genealogy. Sequencing com is more of a pure health but a popular solution for WGS testing that is moved over to genetic genealogy analysis using third-party tools.
While initial entrants are based on providing paired-end, short-read, shotgun NGS testing, look for great improvements with 3rd generation sequencing being introduced. Either long-read technology or also enhancements to short-read that are able to tag adjacent segments before break-up for making post-sequencing alignment more accurate. (Note: Both Dante and FGC introduced long-read tests early-on but abandoned them after one year due to a lack of accuracy and improvement in the product.)
Helix was never really a player in this market. Introduced with much fanfare and backed by Illumina and NGG, they never really delivered anything of value to the genetic genealogy market. Even through their USA partnership with NGG. Most companies that started-up, used their services and listed in their marketplace, have since gone out of business. We continue to list them purely for historical reasons. They mostly offered an exome (or WES) test and charged over $400 to get the raw BAM data from them for use elsewhere.
Table of Contents:
Full Genomes (FGC) was the first and early entrant in this market that supported the genetic genealogy community. Mainly supporting the haplogroup testing areas. With the entrance of Dante Labs in 2018 and their sub-$500 30x WGS, we have seen an dramatic scale-up of interest, use and support. Both companies started by offering a front-end for lab services offered by BGI in their Hong Kong lab using their own developed equipment. Both had suffered delivery problems that first year until they moved away from that service. Newcomer Nebula Genomics has started their new 30x WGS product based on this same lab but now with their new. latest equipment that competes well with Illumina's Novaseq 6000 machines. Today, the BGI machines tend to out deliver the Illumina ones.
Full Genomes (FGC) and ySeq could both be classified as much as genetic genealogy as genetics WGS testers here. The reason being they provide haplogroup analysis and tree services. Nebula and Dante have a focus on health but try to offer cross-support with third-party links for genetic genealogy. Sequencing com is more of a pure health but a popular solution for WGS testing that is moved over to genetic genealogy analysis using third-party tools.
While initial entrants are based on providing paired-end, short-read, shotgun NGS testing, look for great improvements with 3rd generation sequencing being introduced. Either long-read technology or also enhancements to short-read that are able to tag adjacent segments before break-up for making post-sequencing alignment more accurate. (Note: Both Dante and FGC introduced long-read tests early-on but abandoned them after one year due to a lack of accuracy and improvement in the product.)
Helix was never really a player in this market. Introduced with much fanfare and backed by Illumina and NGG, they never really delivered anything of value to the genetic genealogy market. Even through their USA partnership with NGG. Most companies that started-up, used their services and listed in their marketplace, have since gone out of business. We continue to list them purely for historical reasons. They mostly offered an exome (or WES) test and charged over $400 to get the raw BAM data from them for use elsewhere.