Patent ID: 7575865

Claim:
A method of sequencing a target nucleic acid, comprising: a) converting a reference nucleic acid sequence into a reference number sequence comprising a plurality of reference numbers each representing an ideal signal from a nucleotide triphosphate, wherein the reference number sequence further comprises an organization that represents an order of sequential introduction of a plurality of the nucleotide triphosphates; b) detecting signals when a plurality of the nucleotide triphosphates are introduced in the sequential order over one or more copies of a fragment of the target nucleic acid, each signal corresponding to a query number of a query number sequence indicative of a nucleic acid sequence of said fragment, wherein the query number sequence comprises the order that represents the sequential introduction of the plurality of the nucleotide triphosphates; c) matching the query number sequence to a contiguous subset of the reference number sequence at one or more positions; d) comparing the similarity of the query number sequence to the reference number sequence to generate a quality score, wherein the quality score is indicative of the quality of the match between the query number sequence and the contiguous subset of the reference number sequence; e) repeating steps b) through d) for a plurality of different fragments of the target nucleic acid; f) anchoring the query number sequences from a plurality of the fragments at the positions on the reference number sequence corresponding to the match with the highest quality score; g) averaging the query numbers of one or more of the query number sequences at each sequence position of the reference number sequence that is covered by the one or more query number sequences, thereby generating a consensus number sequence; and h) converting the consensus number sequence into a nucleic acid sequence.