Reading Polymers: Sequencing of Natural and Synthetic Macromolecules

The sequencing of biopolymers such as proteins and DNA is among the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century. Indeed, modern chemical methods for sequence analysis allow reading and understanding the codes of life. Thus, sequencing methods currently play a major role in applications as diverse as genomics, gene therapy, biotechnology, and data storage. However, in terms of fundamental science, sequencing is not really a question of molecular biology but rather a more general topic in macromolecular chemistry. Broadly speaking, it can be defined as the analysis of comonomer sequences in copolymers. However, relatively different approaches have been used in the past to study monomer sequences in biological and manmade polymers. Yet, these "cultural" differences are slowly fading away with the recent development of synthetic sequence-controlled polymers. In this context, the aim of this Minireview is to present an overview of the tools that are currently available for sequence analysis in macromolecular science.