Patent ID: 8306756
Filing Date: 2012-11-06
Classification: C12Q,G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for determining a base sequence of a nucleic acid, comprising the following steps (A) to (C) in this order: (A) a basic peak extracting step in which basic peaks are extracted from electrophoretic data containing respective peaks of four kinds of bases obtained by electrophoresing a sample nucleic acid, the basic peaks being peaks having a peak height or a peak area larger than a threshold value; (B) a condition determining step in which a basic peak at a search starting point from which a search is started and a standard peak-to-peak distance are determined based on time-series data composed of the extracted basic peaks; and (C) a base sequence determining step in which a search is started from the basic peak at a search starting point to sequentially scan intervals between adjacent basic peaks in temporal forward and backward directions in the time-series data, and then a distance of each interval between adjacent basic peaks is compared with the standard peak-to-peak distance to add an interpolation peak to a peak-missing area to determine a base sequence of the sample nucleic acid, wherein the method further comprises the following steps (a) to (c) in this order between the Steps (A) and (B): (a) an area dividing step in which time-series data composed of the extracted basic peaks is divided into small areas; (b) a best area extracting step in which a best area showing a best arrangement of basic peaks is extracted from the divided areas; and (c) a mobility correcting step in which a mobility correction amount is calculated from the extracted best area based on a difference in mobility among four kinds of bases, and then mobility correction is performed on the total time-series data based on the mobility correction amount, wherein the time-series data having been subjected to mobility correction in the step (c) is used as time-series data in the step (B), and wherein in the best area extracting step (b), distances between adjacent basic peaks are measured in each small area, and an area having a smallest dispersion in distances between adjacent basic peaks is extracted as the best area, and wherein the steps (A)-(C) and (a)-(c) are performed by a data processing computer.