Biology / Unit 7 Bio 1571 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Shotgun Sequencing and Contigs
Captions available
The idea
Shotgun sequencing breaks many genome copies into random overlapping fragments, sequences each, and reassembles them into a contig by matching overlaps.
In practice
Two fragments whose ends share an identical overlapping sequence can be joined into one longer contig.
Where people slip
A contig is only as reliable as its overlaps — too few overlapping fragments in a region leaves a gap no contig can close.
Your place on the trail
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