Sequenzierungsreads

Sequenzierungsreads, often simply called reads, are short fragments of DNA or RNA that are produced during next-generation sequencing (NGS) experiments. These fragments are the raw output of the sequencing process, where a DNA or RNA molecule is broken into many smaller pieces, and the nucleotide sequence of each piece is determined. The length of these reads can vary depending on the sequencing technology used, ranging from approximately 50 base pairs to several hundred base pairs, and in some cases, even thousands of base pairs for long-read sequencing technologies. The primary purpose of obtaining these reads is to reconstruct the original, longer DNA or RNA molecule. This is typically achieved through a process called genome assembly, where overlapping reads are aligned and stitched together to form longer contiguous sequences, known as contigs. These contigs can then be further assembled into scaffolds and eventually the complete genome. Sequencing reads are also essential for other genomic analyses, such as variant calling, gene expression quantification, and epigenomic profiling. The quality of sequencing reads is a crucial factor in downstream analysis, and various quality control metrics are used to assess and filter low-quality reads.