A Brief Introduction of High-throughput Sequencing

A Brief Introduction of High-throughput Sequencing

Since the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953, mankind has opened the door to molecular biology and gradually understood the composition of genetic information and the pathways of transmission.

High-throughput sequencing, also known as next-generation sequencing (NGS), is a technique that sequences hundreds of thousands to millions of nucleic acid molecules at a time, as opposed to traditional first generation sequencing (Sanger sequencing). This technology prepares a sequencing library by randomly fragmenting and splicing DNA, and finally obtains sequence information by performing extension reactions on tens of thousands of clones in the library and detecting the corresponding signals.

Comparative analysis of high-throughput sequencing and the rest of sequencing methods:

High-throughput sequencing technology can provide a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the transcriptome and genome of a species, and is therefore also known as Deep sequencing.

As a next-generation diagnostic technology, high-throughput sequencing can be applied to precision medicine, making it more accurate and convenient compared to Sanger sequencing. On the one hand, gene sequencing can identify the mutated genes of cancer, so as to rapidly determine the targeted drugs, saving time and improving the treatment effect; on the other hand, the sample only requires the patient's blood or even saliva, without the traditional pathological section, reducing the damage to the patient's organism during the diagnosis process.