Sanger Sequencing

Topic

Resource Type

Level

High School — AP/IB College

Duration

00:00:52

Saved By

9 Users

Description

This animation illustrates Sanger sequencing, one of the earliest methods used to sequence DNA.

Sanger sequencing was developed by Fred Sanger and his colleagues in 1977. As shown in the animation, this method involves replicating DNA in the presence of chemically altered nucleotides. These nucleotides stop the replication process whenever they are incorporated into a growing strand of DNA. This creates many short DNA strands of varying lengths, which can be ordered by length to determine the sequence of the original DNA.

Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different parts of the method.

Key Terms

bioinformatics, chain termination, dideoxynucleotide (ddNTP), DNA replication, laboratory technique, nucleic acid, sequence assembly

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.