Editing DNA sequencing (section)

=== Chain-termination methods ===
{{Main|Sanger sequencing}}
The [[Sanger sequencing|chain-termination method]] developed by [[Frederick Sanger]] and coworkers in 1977 soon became the method of choice, owing to its relative ease and reliability.<ref name="Sanger1977">{{cite journal | vauthors = Sanger F, Nicklen S, Coulson AR | title = DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors | journal = Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA | volume = 74 | issue = 12 | pages = 5463–77 | date = December 1977 | pmid = 271968 | pmc = 431765 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463 | bibcode = 1977PNAS...74.5463S | doi-access = free }}</ref><ref name=Sanger75>{{cite journal | vauthors = Sanger F, Coulson AR | title = A rapid method for determining sequences in DNA by primed synthesis with DNA polymerase | journal = J. Mol. Biol. | volume = 94 | issue = 3 | pages = 441–48 | date = May 1975 | pmid = 1100841 | doi = 10.1016/0022-2836(75)90213-2 }}</ref> When invented, the chain-terminator method used fewer toxic chemicals and lower amounts of radioactivity than the Maxam and Gilbert method.  Because of its comparative ease, the Sanger method was soon automated and was the method used in the first generation of [[DNA sequencer]]s.

Sanger sequencing is the method which prevailed from the 1980s until the mid-2000s. Over that period, great advances were made in the technique, such as fluorescent labelling, capillary electrophoresis, and general automation. These developments allowed much more efficient sequencing, leading to lower costs. The Sanger method, in mass production form, is the technology which produced the [[Human Genome Project|first human genome]] in 2001, ushering in the age of [[genomics]]. However, later in the decade, radically different approaches reached the market, bringing the cost per genome down from $100 million in 2001 to $10,000 in 2011.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wetterstrand |first=Kris |title=DNA Sequencing Costs: Data from the NHGRI Genome Sequencing Program (GSP) |publisher=[[National Human Genome Research Institute]] |access-date=30 May 2013 |url=https://www.genome.gov/sequencingcosts }}</ref>