FAQs Sanger Sequencing

You will find all information about sample format, template and primer concentration as well as shipping information for each of our sequencing services in the respective "Sample Submission" tab.

Please measure the OD with a spectrophotometer at 260 nm and 280 nm. The OD 260 values should be in the range of 0.05 to 0.8 to give reproducible and reliable results. The OD 260/280 ratio should be about 1.8. Values lower than 1.6 and higher than 2.0 indicate contaminants in the sample that interfere with the determination of the concentration and might inhibit the sequencing reaction.

If possible, we recommend measuring the ODs at 230 nm and 320 nm, too. A high value at OD 320 indicates a contaminant. This should be ideally 0.0. The OD 230/260 ratio should be lower than 0.6.

We also recommend ensuring the quality of your DNA by running your sample on an agarose gel.

For plasmids, we recommend the use of commercially available plasmid mini scale preparation kits employing spin columns. From our experience, repeating the washing step will improve the quality of the DNA and therefore improve the sequencing results. Please do not send DNA prepared with alkaline lysis methods or with the boiling method (Holmes and Quigley, 1981) without column purification. For PCR products please use commercially available PCR purification spin column kits.

No, please don't.
EDTA binds bivalent cations such as Mg²⁺ that are essential for the Taq polymerase. Your DNA is stable in double distilled water or Tris-HCl at room temperature for several days or even longer if it is dried down.

This is not necessary; DNA is stable in water at room temperature for several days. Just send your samples either in Tris-HCl, distilled water or air dried. Please, do not use EDTA as this will inhibit the Taq polymerase.

Yes, for all sequencing services we offer template preparation and PCR product purification as an additional service.

Successful isolation of plasmid DNA is possible from most E.coli strains, though the strain which is used can have a significant influence on the quality of the purified DNA. Host strains such as DH10b, DH5 alpha, XL10 Gold and TOP10 normally result in high quality DNA in combination with many commercially available plasmid DNA isolation kits and are therefore ideal for the propagation of plasmids to be sequenced. Lower quality DNA is derived from strains producing large amounts of carbohydrates, which are released during lysis and inhibit enzyme activity. Examples are HB101 and its derivatives such as TG1 and the JM100 series. Also strains with medium or high levels of endonuclease activity like HB101, JM101 or BL21 generate DNA of lower quality, hence a proteinase K treatment should be considered.

Yes, primers and dNTPs must be removed from the product. The primers would produce a mixed sequence (5% contamination with a primer results in unreadable mixed sequences!) and the dNTPs would interfere with the dNTP/ddNTP concentration in the sequencing reaction. We recommend purification by using commercially available PCR spin column kits. Alternatively we can perform the PCR product purification for you as additional service.

If you want to employ one of the PCR primers in the sequencing reaction you must elute the product of interest from an agarose gel. Otherwise, a mixed sequence will be produced as the primer is most likely to bind both the specific and unspecific products. If you employ a specific nested primer in the sequencing reaction, it might work. However, producing only one product in the PCR reaction is the best guarantee for a good sequence. In almost all cases, improving the PCR conditions (specific primer design, higher annealing temperature and/or lower primer concentration) helps to avoid unspecific products.