Firstly, the RNA of the virus sample is converted to DNA. It is cut into short fragments. Several copies of each fragment are made.
Secondly, these fragments are loaded into a sequencer machine. The machine ‘reads’ the order of nucleotides of each of those several segments. The nucleotides are designated English alphabets A, T, C, G in a certain order.
Thirdly, these ‘reads’ of several individual small segments are then fed into computer software. The software puts all those ‘reads’ together to form one complete genome or a whole genome sequence of nucleotides. This completes sequencing.
Finally, the genome, which has been sequenced, is assigned a lineage through other web-based programmes. These lineages help one determine what variant it is, whether it matches with the lineage of nationally or internationally existing variants of the virus or a new variant has come up.
