Comparative Sequence Analysis

Automated fluorescent sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products is now widely used in molecular diagnostics. It is most commonly used to characterize mutations detected in an initial screen using a less sensitive, indirect method, rather than a mutation scanning technique in its own right. This is largely because analysis software associated with automated DNA sequencing systems has been designed primarily to determine sequence, and not to determine the location and nature of heterozygous differences between sequences.