Patent ID: 7222059

Claim:
A method for creating a simulated electrophoretic trace for use in sequencing a sample polynucleotide sequence, comprising the steps of (a) obtaining an input file containing an input base sequence, derived from an expected reference base sequence independent of the sample polynucleotide sequence, comprising a string of letters (A, C, G and/or T) in an order corresponding to the input base sequence; (b) modifying the input file using one or more functions to introduce distortions associated with (1) changes in peak intensity as a function of base number; (2) peak shape as a function of base number; (3) peak skew; (4) spacing between peaks; (5) background; (6) noise; (7) spectral cross-talk; (8) instrumental effects and/or (9) gel electrophoresis effects to produce a modified file representing a simulated electrophoretic trace.