a sequencing approach that involves the cloning of a large region of DNA (whole BAC to whole genome) into many smaller fragments of DNA, which are then sequenced individually and reassembled to recreate the starting material.
The process of breaking a long DNA sequence (or an entire genome) into many small pieces, sequencing the pieces, and assembling the fragments.
Shotgun sequencing is a method used in genetics for sequencing long DNA strands. Since the chain termination method of DNA sequencing can only be used for fairly short strands, it is necessary to divide longer sequences up and then assemble the results to give the overall sequence. In chromosome walking, this division is done by progressing through the entire strand, piece by piece; shotgun sequencing uses a faster, but more complex, process to assemble random pieces of the sequence.