Analytical chemistry pipeline 'helps reduce errors'

An analytical chemistry pipeline which addresses some of the error-prone areas of electrophoresis-based research can help to improve results, say scientists.

Writing in Investigative Genetics, a periodical devoted to research findings in the field of molecular genetics, a team from Brazil's Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz, along with the US National Cancer Institute, explain where the errors typically arise in population genetics studies.

In particular, the analytical chemistry process often followed involves Sanger sequencing based on capillary electrophoresis, followed by Phred-Phrap-Consed-Polyphred and DNAsp resequencing.

However, between the two resequencing stages, errors often arise due to the number of steps that must be manually carried out - despite these being relatively basic stages, the researchers say.

Using a pipeline to reformat the output of Phred-Phrap-Consed-Polyphred resequencing and check for anomalies, as well as to structure the data suitably for DNAsp, the team claim to have eliminated several kinds of mistake from the process.