Figure 1

Aberrant Solexa tiles. This figure displays three distinct types of errors that we have seen occur on Solexa tiles. The image was generated using plotQTile with the color-by category option. The tile data was drawn from tiles 129, 85, and 6 respectively – all produced from the same lane and run. The error depicted in 1b appears to be caused by a bubble in one of the reagents. This bubble increased the error rate, converting U0 reads into U1 reads. From further investigation we know this occurred during cycle 28. The error depicted in 1c is an area in which no reads at all occurred – possibly a problem with the DNA binding to the flow cell, or a smudge on the surface of the flow cell. The error depicted in 1a remains enigmatic.