Across the three kits, insertion/deletion (indel) errors were the dominant form of error in the reads ( Figure 2 ). Insertions were more common (0.84%, 2.69%, 1.76% of untrimmed bases in the 100 bp One Touch, 200 bp Manual, and 200 bp One Touch) than deletions (0.80%, 1.98%, 1.07% of untrimmed bases in the 100 bp One Touch, 200 bp Manual, and 200 bp One Touch). Substitutions errors were an order of magnitude less frequent than insertion/deletion errors, with a mean rate of 0.04%, 0.17% and 0.07% in the 100 bp OneTouch, 200 bp Manual and 200 bp OneTouch kits. In total, the mean error rate for each kit based on the sum of these error types is 1.68%, 4.84% and 2.90% for the 100 bp OneTouch, 200 bp manual and 200 bp OneTouch kits, with homopolymer errors responsible for between 96–97% of the total error. Substitution errors had the highest variation in frequency, with a standard deviation ranging from 26%–56% of the mean substitution rate. The standard deviation of indel errors was between 19%–34% of the mean indel rates.
