GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

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Subject: [DNA] error rates
Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2001 19:35:42 EDT

Earl-
DNA sequencing is a quantized process. There should be no errors and no
shades of gray. However, like all human endeavors, there are sometimes
errors introduced from a variety of sources. Since nearly all sequencing
these days is done robotically, the chances for error are minimized but never
zero. Some sequences, in fact, are very difficult to sequence and can be a
source of error. For genealogy and similar purposes, those sequences are
avoided so the results should be clean. I do not know the error rate for any
given lab and I don't know if there are accurate assessments of the rates.
My guess is that the human-induced error rate (cross-contamination of
samples, mislabelling, etc) are higher than the mutation rate so any critical
piece of data should be replicated independently.

John

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