<unk>  is not yet commercially available, but the long read lengths that this technology may one day provide will make it useful in a variety of contexts. De novo genome assembly When<unk>  a genome, it must be broken down into pieces that are short enough to be sequenced in a single read. These reads must then be put back together like a jigsaw puzzle by aligning the regions that overlap between reads; this process is called de novo genome assembly. The longer the read length that a<unk>  platform provides, the longer the overlapping regions, and the easier it is to assemble the genome. From a computational perspective, microfluidic Sanger<unk>  is still the most effective way to sequence and assemble genomes for which no reference genome sequence exists. The relatively long read lengths provide substantial overlap between individual<unk>  reads, which allows for greater statistical confidence in the assembly. In addition, long Sanger reads are able to span most regions of repetitive<unk>  sequence which otherwise confound sequence assembly by causing false alignments. However, de novo genome assembly by Sanger<unk>  is extremely expensive and time consuming. Second generation<unk>  technologies, while less expensive, are generally unfit for de novo genome assembly due to short read lengths. In general, third generation<unk>  technologies, including<unk> , aim to improve read length while maintaining low<unk>  cost. Thus, as third generation<unk>  technologies improve, rapid and inexpensive de novo genome assembly will become a reality. Full haplotypes A haplotype is a series of linked alleles that are inherited together on a single chromosome.<unk><unk>  can be used to genotype all of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that constitute a haplotype. However, short<unk><unk>  reads often cannot be phased; that is, heterozygous variants cannot be confidently assigned to the correct haplotype. In fact, haplotyping with short read<unk><unk>  data requires very high coverage (average >50x coverage of each<unk>  base) to accurately identify SNPs, as well as additional sequence data from the parents so that Mendelian<unk>  can be used to estimate the haplotypes.<unk>  technologies that generate long reads, including<unk> , can capture entire haploblocks in a single read. That is, haplotypes are not broken up among multiple reads, and the genetically linked alleles remain together in the<unk>  data. Therefore, long reads make haplotyping easier and more accurate, which is beneficial to the field of population genetics. Copy number variants Genes are normally present in two copies in the diploid human genome; genes that deviate from this standard copy number are referred to as copy number variants (CNVs). Copy number variation can be benign (these are usually common variants, called copy number polymorphisms) or pathogenic. CNVs are detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). To detect the specific breakpoints at which a deletion occurs, or to detect genomic lesions introduced by a duplication or amplification event, CGH can be performed using a tiling array (array CGH), or the variant region can be sequenced. Long<unk>  reads are especially useful for analyzing duplications or amplifications, as it is possible to analyze the orientation of the amplified segments if they are captured in a single<unk>  read. Cancer Cancer genomics, or oncogenomics, is an emerging field in which high-throughput, second generation<unk><unk>  technology is being applied to sequence entire cancer genomes. Analyzing this short read<unk>  data encompasses all of the problems associated with de novo genome assembly using short read data. Furthermore, cancer genomes are often aneuploid. These aberrations, which are essentially large scale copy number variants, can be analyzed by second-generation<unk>  technologies using read frequency to estimate the copy number. Longer reads would, however, provide a more accurate picture of copy number, orientation of amplified regions, and SNPs present in cancer genomes. Microbiome<unk>  The microbiome refers the total collection of microbes present in a microenvironment and their respective genomes. For example, an estimated 100 trillion microbial cells colonize the human body at any given time. The human microbiome is of particular interest, as these commensal bacteria are important for human health and immunity. Most of the Earth's bacterial genomes have not yet been sequenced; undertaking a microbiome<unk>  project would require extensive de novo genome assembly, a prospect which is daunting with short read<unk><unk>  technologies. Longer reads would greatly facilitate the assembly of new microbial genomes.
Transmission electron microscopy DNA sequencing
Malaria culture
Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility assay
Functional molecular infection epidemiology
Toxin and Toxin-Target Database
Leishman stain
WHO model list of essential in vitro diagnostics
CDC classification system for HIV infection