A shotgun genome sequencing project is designed in which the average length of a sequenced fragment is 150 nucleotides and each nucleotide is to be sequenced an average of 20 times. For a genome that is 3 × 10⁷ base pairs long, how many fragments of 150 nucleotides would need to be sequenced?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To calculate the number of 150 nucleotide fragments needed to sequence a 3 × 10^9 base pair genome at 20x coverage, you multiply the genome size by the coverage (20) and then divide by the fragment length (150). This gives (3 × 10^9) × 20 ÷ 150 = 4 × 10^8 fragments.

A Shotgun Genome Sequencing Project Is Designed in Which the Average