How does next-generation sequencing differ from Sanger sequencing in throughput?

• A. NGS sequences individual molecules sequentially.
• B. Sanger sequencing sequences millions of fragments in parallel.
• C. NGS sequences millions to billions of fragments in parallel, enabling high-throughput data generation.
• D. Sanger sequencing provides higher throughput.

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is how much data you can generate in one sequencing run, which is determined by parallel processing. Next-generation sequencing achieves high throughput by sequencing millions to billions of DNA fragments at the same time in parallel, across a flow cell or across multiple clusters. This massively parallel approach produces a huge volume of data quickly. In contrast, Sanger sequencing reads one DNA fragment at a time in a sequential manner, so its data output per run is much lower. So the correct statement highlights the massively parallel, high-throughput data generation of NGS compared with the much lower throughput of Sanger. The other options describe sequencing in ways that don’t match how NGS achieves such high data output.