Length distribution of sequencing by synthesis: fixed flow cycle model

Abstract: Sequencing by synthesis is the underlying technology for many next-generation DNA sequencing platforms. We developed a new model, the fixed flow cycle model, to derive the distributions of sequence length for a given number of flow cycles under the general conditions where the nucleotide incorporation is probabilistic and may be incomplete, as in some single-molecule sequencing technologies. Unlike the previous model, the new model yields the probability distribution for the sequence length. Explicit closed form formulas are derived for the mean and variance of the distribution.