Development and validation of a high throughput SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing workflow in a clinical laboratory

Monitoring new mutations in SARS-CoV-2 provides crucial information for identifying diagnostic and therapeutic targets and important insights to achieve a more effective COVID-19 control strategy. Next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have been widely used for whole genome sequencing (WGS) of SARS-CoV-2. While various NGS methods have been reported, one chief limitation has been the complexity of the workflow, limiting the scalability. Here, we overcome this limitation by designing a laboratory workflow optimized for high-throughput studies. The workflow utilizes modified ARTIC network v3 primers for SARS-CoV-2 whole genome amplification. NGS libraries were prepared by a 2-step PCR method, similar to a previously reported tailed PCR method, with further optimizations to improve amplicon balance, to minimize amplicon dropout for viral genomes harboring primer-binding site mutation(s), and to integrate robotic liquid handlers. Validation studies demonstrated that the optimized workflow can process up to 2688 samples in a single sequencing run without compromising sensitivity and accuracy and with fewer amplicon dropout events compared to the standard ARTIC protocol. We additionally report results for over 65,000 SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequences from clinical specimens collected in the United States between January and September of 2021, as part of an ongoing national genomics surveillance effort.