In the last 50 years since Watson first discovered the structure of DNA, many advances have been made to enable researchers to study and dissect this macromolecule. Of primary interest for gene discovery efforts is the ability to precisely unravel the sequence of nucleotides comprising genes of interest. This unraveling process, called DNA sequencing, is the main focus of the VBI CLF DNA sequencing group.

DNA templates are isolated from a variety of sources including plasmids, PCR reactions, or genomic DNA. DNA source templates can be submitted by the customer or can be provided as a service by the VBI CLF. These templates are then used in conjunction with template-specific primers, fluorescently labeled nucleotides and DNA polymerase to generate labeled fragments of complimentary DNA. These fragments are then analyzed on a fully automated capillary electrophoresis machine and detected by a laser to generate a string of nucleotides representing the DNA sequence of the starting template.

This sequence can then be analyzed and compared to other known sequences with the help of various computational tools provided by our Core Computational Facility (CCF).

Useful Links

DNA Sequencing Services and Procedures