How does Sanger Sequencing Work? – Seq It Out #1?

Sanger sequencing is like solving a puzzle by looking at each piece one by one.

Imagine you have a long string of colored beads, red, blue, green, and yellow, all tangled together. You want to figure out the exact order of these colors, but they’re mixed up. That’s kind of what scientists do with DNA, they want to know the exact order of the letters (called bases) in a long strand.

In Sanger sequencing, scientists use a special machine that helps them untangle these beads one by one. They add some helpers, like little markers that stick to certain colors, so they can tell which bead comes next. It’s kind of like when you're sorting your toys and using different colored boxes to keep things organized.

Each time the machine takes out a bead, it notes down its color. After many turns, scientists put all the colors together in order, just like putting a puzzle back together!

Once they know the exact sequence of beads (or bases), scientists can see what message was hidden inside that long string, kind of like reading a secret note written in bead language!