OCTAMER-PRIMED CYCLE SEQUENCING USING DYE-TERMINATOR CHEMISTRY

Octamer Sequencing Technology, OST, is a method of DNA sequencing usin g single octamer oligonucleotides to prime cycle sequencing reactions. This sequencing strategy is faster than a traditional primer-walking strategy, since access to this optimized octamer library eliminates de lays associated with designing and synthesizing gene specific primers. In this report, OST has been optimized for fluorescent, dye-terminato r cycle sequencing reactions to facilitate parallel processing of samp les. The successful adaptation of OST to an automated sequencing platf orm and the design of and access to an octamer library are critical st eps towards developing an efficient 'closed-loop' DNA sequencing syste m.