New technologies for large-genome sequencing

Interest in DNA sequencing has increased in recent years and research into new instrument systems to optimize and automate the process has been intensified. A number of commercial devices, from Europe, Japan, and the United States, which instrument aspects of (mainly) the Sanger method, are now available and several new DNA sequencing techniques have been reported. This review briefly describes current methods of DNA sequencing and provides an account of systems presently available or under development for instrumenting the technology. The problems of automation for large-scale DNA sequencing are discussed.