DNA sequencing basics

November 9, 2010 3:35 PM

How do I go about learning how DNA sequencing works?

I'm trying to figure out how the various sequencing method works so I can understand the implications of the terminology used in research papers in biology. What online resources, books, tutorials can I use?
After learning about basic sequencing (Sanger etc.), how do I learn more about next-generation sequencing?

posted by doriancarey to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

I'm no expert, but a good portion of my understanding came from the book "A Low Cost Approach to PCR". It's written for the third-world clinic that wants to be able to do identifications faster than culturing and a microscope would tell you, and goes through being able to do the basics with a couple of old blenders, a record player, and the requisite agar agar gel and a black light.

Probably won't take you all the way up to modern arrays, but should give you enough to understand what's going on.
posted by straw at 3:41 PM on November 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Do you have access to journals through a library/institution? If so, there are some good reviews out there like this one from Nature Biotechnology.
posted by Durin's Bane at 3:46 PM on November 9, 2010

Best answer: Look for review articles such as this one, an overview of sequencing techniques discussing the methods as well as the pros and cons of each one, and this one, beautifully illustrated with a focus on next-gen sequencing. I'll be happy to send them to you if you don't have access.
posted by halogen at 3:54 PM on November 9, 2010

The National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health hosts several biomedical textbooks online for free in the National Center for Biotechnology Information Bookshelf. They have an old edition of Genomes online. If you can't find a newer edition at your library, its chapter on sequencing genomes should introduce Sanger sequencing adequately.

I have read the review by Shendure and Ji that Durin's Bane links and it is very good introduction to several second-generation sequencing technologies.
posted by grouse at 3:55 PM on November 9, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for the all quick answers! I do have access to those articles, thanks for the offer halogen. I'll leave the question unresolved for a little bit longer just in case someone posts any more useful stuff, but I think I have what I need.
posted by doriancarey at 4:03 PM on November 9, 2010

Wellcome has an animation that explains the 454 technique here. Our lab uses an Illumina pipeline, which is explained in this animation.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:33 PM on November 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

Great answers! If any interested readers would like to learn about DNA but aren't up for reading the scientific literature, there are lots of great resources online, such as

the Dolan DNA Learning Center

The Nobel web site

The National Institutes of Health
posted by Sublimity at 5:13 PM on November 9, 2010