For some #NGS applications, it’s necessary to amplify (make copies of) DNA prior to sequencing. Sometimes this biases (creates errors) within the sample—and this is how I think about that:
(Tiny Thread)
Amplifying DNA is like the childhood game ‘Telephone’, where a message (a DNA template) goes around a circle (cycles of PCR) and usually ends up being distorted (having amplification artifacts).
Conceptually, this happens when you make a copy of a copy of a copy—errors can propagate forward, whether it’s a juicy bit of gossip in Telephone or a repetitive chunk of DNA, which are even more prone to bias! Why?
Repetitive stretches of DNA (...GCCGCGCCG...), in the Telephone analogy, are like tongue twisters. Imagine how morphed the end result would be if the first player began the game with, “She sells GCGC-shells by the GCGC-shore.”
I say this to bury the lead for this weekend’s @ARKInvest newsletter where we touch on CoolMPS amplification chemistry (and how it may mitigate amplification errors)—I’ll try to do a deeper dive soon in more detail.
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