The Human Genome Project relied on dideoxy sequencing, developed by Nobel laureate Fred Sanger, Alan Coulson and colleagues at the University of Cambridge in the late 1970s. Sanger sequencing ingeniously used trace amounts of dideoxy nucleotides to halt the synthesis of DNA strands at specific bases; by separating these radioactively labeled strands using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the native sequencing could be determined by reading the position of the bands on an autoradiograph. Sanger’s method outlasted a rival method developed by Allan Maxam and Walter Gilbert, who shared the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980 with Sanger. Key developments included the introduction of automated instruments using fluorescent dye labels and capillary electrophoresis. Commercial instruments were used in factory-like settings by genome centers and the sequencing firm Celera Genomics to produce the first draft of the human genome in 2000.
ABI 310, first capillary DNA sequencer
ABI 370 (373) DNA sequencing instruments
ABI 3730
ABI Prism 3100 Genetic Analyzer
ABI Prism 3700 DNA Analyzer
ALF DNA Analysis System, Pharmacia
Chain-terminating dideoxynucleotides, fluorescent
Chain termination
DNA fingerprinting/DNA forensics
DNA sequencing
Genesis 2000, DuPont
Genome Sequencer GS20, 454 Life Sciences next-generation sequencer unveiled
High-throughput sequencing
Introduction of ABI 377 sequencing machine
Massively parallel sequencing
Maxam-Gilbert DNA sequencing method
MegaBACE sequencing machine, Molecular Dynamics
Model 470A Protein Sequencer, first commercial instrument
Multiplex (Polony) sequencing
Nanopore sequencing
Next-generation sequencing
Paleontology, use of DNA sequencing in
PE Prism 3700 sequencer
Protein sequencing
Pyrosequencing
Sanger DNA sequencing method
Sequencing by hybridization (SBH)
Sequencing dyes
Shotgun sequencing strategy described
Single-molecule sequencing
Solexa (Illumina) next-generation sequencer introduced
SOLiD sequencer (Life Technologies)
Transposon-mediated chromosome sequencing
Whole-genome shotgun method