Transmission electron microscopy DNA sequencing is an emerging third-generation, single-molecule sequencing technology that uses transmission electron microscopy techniques. DNA is visible under the electron microscope; however, it must be labeled with heavy atoms so that the DNA bases can be clearly visualized. In addition, specialized imaging techniques and aberration corrected optics are beneficial for obtaining the resolution required to image the labeled DNA molecule. Transmission electron microscopy DNA sequencing advantageously may provide extremely long read lengths, but it is not yet commercially available.
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History
Only a few years after James Watson and Francis Crick deduced the structure of DNA, and nearly two decades before Frederick Sanger published the first method for rapid DNA sequencing, Richard Feynman, an American physicist, envisioned the electron microscope as the tool that would one day allow biologists to “see the order of bases in the DNA chain”. Feynman believed that if the electron microscope could be made powerful enough, then it would become possible to visualize the atomic structure of any and all chemical compounds, including DNA.