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Updated: Dec 25, 2025

Improving Student Outcomes with an Adaptable Molecular Cloning Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience
Published on: November 15, 2024
Modeling of shotgun sequencing of DNA plasmids using experimental and theoretical approaches
Sergey Shityakov1,2, Elena Bencurova3, Carola Förster4
1Department of Bioinformatics, University of Würzburg, 97074, Würzburg, Germany. shityakoff@hotmail.com.
Background:
Processing and analysis of DNA sequences obtained from next-generation sequencing (NGS) face some difficulties in terms of the correct prediction of DNA sequencing outcomes without the implementation of bioinformatics approaches. However, algorithms based on NGS perform inefficiently due to the generation of long DNA fragments, the difficulty of assembling them and the complexity of the used genomes. On the other hand, the Sanger DNA sequencing method is still considered to be the most reliable; it is a reliable choice for virtual modeling to build all possible consensus sequences from smaller DNA fragments.
Results:
In silico and in vitro experiments were conducted: (1) to implement and test our novel sequencing algorithm, using the standard cloning vectors of different length and (2) to validate experimentally virtual shotgun sequencing using the PCR technique with the number of cycles from 1 to 9 for each reaction.
Conclusions:
We applied a novel algorithm based on Sanger methodology to correctly predict and emphasize the performance of DNA sequencing techniques as well as in de novo DNA sequencing and its further application in synthetic biology. We demonstrate the statistical significance of our results.
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