Fluorescence Quenching-Based Sequencing-by-Synthesis on a Microarray

Sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) promises to provide a simple, effective DNA sequencing method. However, SBS creates fluorescence in the test materials and removal of fluorescence is required in order to continue reading the DNA sequence. This ability to quench the fluorescence has a wide application in many areas of research. We used the fluorescence quencher (DABCYL) to solve this problem. DABCYL absorbs energy over a wide range of wavelengths and dissipates the absorbed energy from the fluorescein as heat. We describe the conditions of this reaction. We successfully read a length of 17 bases on the aldehyde slides by using fluorescence quenching. This simple and inexpensive method proved to be feasible. It has a strong potential in extending the number of base pairs read at a low-cost and with high-throughout sequencing on a microarray.