Next-generation high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques are opening fascinating opportunities in the life sciences. DNA is basically a long molecule that contains coded instructions for the cells. Everything the cells do is coded somehow in DNA - which cells should grow and when, which cells should die and when, which cells should make hair and what color it should be. Our DNA is inherited from our parents. We resemble our parents simply because our bodies were formed using DNA to guide the process - the DNA we inherited from them.
We may resemble our parents, but we are never exactly like them. This is because each child gets only some of the DNA each parent carries. About half our DNA comes from our mother, and half comes from our father. Which pieces we get is basically random, and each child gets a different subset of the parents' DNA. Thus, siblings may have the same parents, but they usually do not have exactly the same DNA.
A 'plasmid' is a small, circular piece of DNA that is often found in bacteria. This innocuous molecule might help the bacteria survive in the presence of an antibiotic, for example, due to the genes it carries. To scientists, however, plasmids are important because (i) we can isolate them in large quantities, (ii) we can cut and splice them, adding whatever DNA we choose, (iii) we can put them back into bacteria, where they'll replicate along with the bacteria's own DNA Next-generation DNA sequencing, and (iv) we can isolate them again - getting billions of copies of whatever DNA we inserted into the plasmid!
Shotgun sequencing is a method for determining the sequence fo a very large piece of DNA. The basic DNA sequencing reaction can only get the sequence of a few hundred nucleotides. For larger ones Next-generation DNA sequencing, we usually fragment the DNA and insert the resultant pieces into a convenient vector Next-generation DNA sequencing to replicate them. After we sequence the fragments, we try to deduce from them the sequence of the originalNext-generation DNA sequencing.
We may resemble our parents, but we are never exactly like them. This is because each child gets only some of the DNA each parent carries. About half our DNA comes from our mother, and half comes from our father. Which pieces we get is basically random, and each child gets a different subset of the parents' DNA. Thus, siblings may have the same parents, but they usually do not have exactly the same DNA.
A 'plasmid' is a small, circular piece of DNA that is often found in bacteria. This innocuous molecule might help the bacteria survive in the presence of an antibiotic, for example, due to the genes it carries. To scientists, however, plasmids are important because (i) we can isolate them in large quantities, (ii) we can cut and splice them, adding whatever DNA we choose, (iii) we can put them back into bacteria, where they'll replicate along with the bacteria's own DNA Next-generation DNA sequencing, and (iv) we can isolate them again - getting billions of copies of whatever DNA we inserted into the plasmid!
Shotgun sequencing is a method for determining the sequence fo a very large piece of DNA. The basic DNA sequencing reaction can only get the sequence of a few hundred nucleotides. For larger ones Next-generation DNA sequencing, we usually fragment the DNA and insert the resultant pieces into a convenient vector Next-generation DNA sequencing to replicate them. After we sequence the fragments, we try to deduce from them the sequence of the originalNext-generation DNA sequencing.
