Illumina Announces Commercial Release of the Infinium^® BovineSNP50 BeadChip

Illumina, Inc. today launched the Infinium BovineSNP50 BeadChip, a 12-sample genotyping product now available for detecting genetic variation in any breed of cattle. Developed in collaboration with leading bovine researchers from the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), the University of Missouri-Columbia, the University of Alberta, and other industry partners, the BovineSNP50 BeadChip features more than 54,000 SNPs evenly spaced across the entire bovine genome. Of these SNPs, 24,000 were discovered using Illumina’s Genome Analyzer and are not available on any other commercial array or in any public database. Illumina also recently released the Infinium CanineSNP20 BeadChip, a 22,000 SNP panel developed in collaboration with the Broad Institute and the University of California, Davis. Genotyping on both the BovineSNP50 and CanineSNP20 products is also available as a service through Illumina’s FastTrack Genotyping Services group.

Researchers can take advantage of the iSelect™ Infinium Custom product process to design powerful multi-sample BeadChips with specific disease-related or pathway-related SNPs for their organism. Infinium iSelect Custom Genotyping offers access to SNPs across the entire genome, the highest data quality and reproducibility, and call rates greater than 99 percent. To date, Illumina has developed customized genotyping solutions for 15 non-human species using both the GoldenGate^® and Infinium Assays.

“Researchers from a range of markets, including agricultural, work with Illumina because they can build products that offer comprehensive and focused content for genetic analysis,” said Carsten Rosenow, Ph.D., Illumina’s Senior Marketing Manager of DNA Analysis Products. “Specifically, the BovineSNP50 and CanineSNP20 BeadChips will benefit the agriculture communities by allowing for accurate selection of genetic merit at birth.”

At this week’s Plant and Animal Genome (PAG) conference, scientists from major agricultural research institutions, including Martien Groenen, Ph.D., Professor Animal Breeding and Genetics Group, Wageningen University and Curt Van Tassell, Ph.D., Research Geneticist, USDA-ARS will present overviews of their work developing custom genotyping arrays with Illumina. Specifically, the Bovine consortium will present the data they have collected from initial studies using the BovineSNP50 BeadChip.

“Developing the BovineSNP50 BeadChip was possible because of collaborative efforts from each of the bovine groups and the level of support we received from Illumina,” said Jerry Taylor, Ph.D., Professor of Animal Sciences and Genetics at the University of Missouri-Columbia. “In particular, Illumina’s Genome Analyzer played a pivotal role in discovering novel, validated content not found on any other product. With more than 100 million head of cattle in the United States, one billion globally, we hope that the BovineSNP50 BeadChip benefits the bovine research community by offering a more efficient and cost effective method for breeding offspring with desired traits.”

Illumina continues to partner with consortia around the world to develop human and non-human screening assays. Presently, Illumina is working with researchers at the Animal Health Trust, Royal Veterinary College, University of Minnesota, and the Broad Institute to develop an equine genotyping BeadChip. Commercial release of this chip is expected in Q1 2008.