Introduction to Nucleic Acid Sequencing

Abstract

Determining the order of nucleotide in the biological macromolecules has laid the foundation for understanding the biology of an organism. Over the last 50 years, genomics has been revolutionized with the researchers producing newer techniques and technologies leading to innovations in the field of DNA sequencing. This period has witnessed revolutionary developments in terms of progressing from simple oligonucleotide sequencing to massive parallel sequencing of millions of bases, from struggling to map the coding sequences of single gene to whole genome-wide annotations. The use of sequencing has increased tremendously, and an advance in sequencing technologies over the years has made it accessible to research and clinical labs all over the world. With the introduction of massive parallel sequencing technologies, the overload of data onto the scientists has become the biggest challenge. The Human Genome Project took around 13 years to draft the first human genome sequence. But, now with the advancement of the sequencing technology and bioinformatics tools, it could be done in few hours to days. The DNA sequencing techniques are key tools in the scientific world revolutionizing many fields of science and are increasingly used in health care especially in the field of oncology, inherited disorders, and infectious diseases. The current chapter traverses in the chronological order, describing different generations of sequencing technology, underlining few key discoveries, scientists, and sequences along the way.