Overview of DNA sequencing strategies.

Efficient and cost-effective DNA sequencing technologies have been, and may continue to be, critical to the progress of molecular biology. This overview of DNA sequencing strategies pro- vides a high-level review of six distinct approaches to DNA sequencing: (a) dideoxy sequencing; (b) cyclic array sequencing; (c) sequencing-by-hybridization; (d) microelectrophoresis; (e) mass spectrometry; and (f) nanopore sequencing. The primary focus is on dideoxy sequencing, which has been the dominant technology since 1977, and on cyclic array strategies, for which sev- eral competitive implementations have been developed since 2005. Because the field of DNA sequencing is changing rapidly, this unit represents a snapshot of this particular moment. Curr. Protoc. Mol. Biol. 81:7.1.1-7.1.11. C ! 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.