Mind the gaps

Abstract

By grouping short reads derived from the same long genomic fragment, the reads can easily be assembled into fragments that approach the length of capillary sequencing reads.

Figure 1

Turning short reads into long reads using subassembly. The process begins with size-selected fragments of approximately 500 bp. The fragments get unique tags on both ends (red and green), and all fragments are then amplified using PCR. Random shearing breaks each fragment at many different places. The sheared fragments are sequenced from both ends, producing reads that originate all along the fragments. These reads can then be clustered together based on the unique tags and assembled to produce ‘reads’ that are nearly as long as the original DNA fragment.