Sequencing

[Ajay]

A human has two sets of chromosomes and during sequencing is there a technique in which they differentiate
the two sets and individually do the sequencing ?

[canalon]

Have you read how sequencing is done? Only one fragment at a time is sequenced, there could be 32 chromosomes, that would not impact the sequencing it self. But assembly might be slightly tricky...

[Ajay]

sorry let me rephrase my question how exactly is the assembly done ? I am asking this because how specifically do they detect heterozygosity ?

[mith]

You look at the fragments and then you pick areas where they overlap, given enough copies you should be able to build a contiguous consensus based on overlaps. Theoretically you could have a bunch of frags as short as 4bps long and still be able to get a decent length of sequence.

[canalon]

I second mith until the last sentence. If your sequences are too short, it will be nearimpossible to get a consensus because they won't differ enough to provide enough significant overlap. Sequences the size of a PCR primer (for the exact same reason) would probably be the minimum to assemble something.

[bryanwilliamz]

Actually the main point is that you look the fragments and check out the overlapping, and then you should be able to build a consensus, depending on overlaps.