{
  "status": "research",
  "advantages": [],
  "limitations": [],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "updated": "2026-10-18",
  "slug": "sequencing-coverage",
  "term": "Sequencing coverage (DNA storage)",
  "aliases": [
    "DNA read depth"
  ],
  "definition": "Sequencing coverage in DNA storage measures reads relative to intended sequence identities, with the read population and aggregation rule explicitly specified.",
  "note": "A pool-wide mean N/M is different from a per-identity count, a median across identities or a median across files. Raw and usable reads have different numerators. State the selected file or pool before comparing results. [hesela-coverage]\n\nTen times average coverage can coexist with poorly sampled identities. In a calculated 10,000-identity example, the expected unseen count is about 0.454 under uniform sampling and 368 under the specified uneven distribution. These expectations are not measured dropout rates. [hesela-coverage]",
  "related": [
    "dna-data-storage",
    "oligonucleotide-dropout"
  ],
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "hesela-coverage",
      "title": "Hesela: DNA storage, uneven sampling and missing sequences",
      "url": "https://hesela.com/analyses/dna-storage-coverage-and-dropout/",
      "accessed": "2026-10-18"
    },
    {
      "id": "heckel2017",
      "title": "Heckel, Shomorony, Ramchandran and Tse. Fundamental Limits of DNA Storage Systems. arXiv:1705.04732v1 (2017)",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/1705.04732v1",
      "accessed": "2026-10-18"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": [
    "Coverage is a sampling statistic, not by itself a decoder-success or retention guarantee."
  ]
}