CSI and sequencing – what is the reality?
Image by Beige Alert via Flickr
Recently I daily enjoyed watching CSI series on our local TV station. I am not into forensic science but I work in a lab for molecular biology and I know a thing or two about DNA sequencing. I would like to show you my perspective of the sequencing process that is simplified by the CSI series.
In school we learn about genetic material. In brief: chromosomes are composed of genes, genes are constituted of DNA and DNA is arranged in a long sequence of four different nucleotides: adenosine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). The sequence of millions of this four nucleotide letters represents our genome. And here the real work begins. Read further if you are interested in how to obtain a sequence of particular gene, for example to determine the relationship between two persons.