How does DNA sequencing work?
DNA molecules consist of repeating nucleotides, which are the the bases of DNA. Nucleotides consist of adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), and cytosine (C). DNA molecules are double-stranded, with two complimentary DNA strands forming a double helix. DNA sequencing aims to determine the exact order of the bases, A, T, C and G in a DNA fragment. The basic principle of DNA sequencing is simple and consists of two main steps. In the first step, labeled nucleotides are inserted into copies of a DNA fragment. In the second step, the DNA sequence is derived from the locations of the labeled nucleotides. The first step involves a technique called DNA amplification. First, the original double-stranded DNA is heated and separated into two single DNA strands. Then, these single strands are used as a template for making complementary copies. We then end up with a large number of fragments of different lengths. The second step involves separating the DNA fragments according to their lengths. Th