shotgun sequencing

English edit

Etymology edit

Formed through analogy with the effect of a shotgun blast, which contains many small pellets.

Noun edit

shotgun sequencing (uncountable)

  1. (genetics) A DNA sequencing technique in which a large number of small fragments of a long DNA strand are generated at random, sequenced, and reassembled to form a sequence of the original strand.
    Synonym: shotgun cloning
    • 2005, Selene K Swanson with Michael P. Washburn, “The continuing evolution of shotgun proteomics”, in Drug Discovery Today, →DOI, page 719:
      In shotgun sequencing of genomic DNA, fragments of a genome are sequenced and computationally reassembled to determine the genome of an organism

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Further reading edit