Word.ws English Dictionary

shotgun sequencing

shotgun sequencing noun: a DNA sequencing technique in which a large number of small fragments of a long DNA strand are generated at random, sequenced, and reassembled to form a sequence of the original strand.

Noun

shotgun sequencing (uncountable)

  1. A DNA sequencing technique in which a large number of small fragments of a long DNA strand are generated at random, sequenced, and reassembled to form a sequence of the original strand.
    • In shotgun sequencing of genomic DNA, fragments of a genome are sequenced and computationally reassembled to determine the genome of an organism2005, Selene K Swanson with Michael P. Washburn, “The continuing evolution of shotgun proteomics”, in Drug Discovery Today, →DOI, page 719
    Synonyms:
    shotgun cloning

Synonyms of shotgun sequencing

Origin of shotgun sequencing

Formed through analogy with the effect of a shotgun blast, which contains many small pellets.

Questions about shotgun sequencing

What does shotgun sequencing mean?
Shotgun sequencing means a DNA sequencing technique in which a large number of small fragments of a long DNA strand are generated at random, sequenced, and reassembled to form a sequence of the original strand.
What part of speech is shotgun sequencing?
Shotgun sequencing is a noun.

Words near shotgun sequencing in the dictionary

  1. shotgun offense
  2. shotgun offenses
  3. shotgun pleading
  4. shotgun pleadings
  5. shotgun proteomics
  6. shotgun sequencing
  7. shotgun shack
  8. shotgun shacks
  9. shotgun start
  10. shotgun starts
  11. shotgun surgery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shotgun sequencing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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