before discuusing advantages of edman degradation, let us have a
look at the disadvantages of Sanger sequencing which are being
taken care of by the edman process
Limitations of Sanger Sequencing
- It can only be used to sequence short pieces of DNA, about 350
to 1000 base pairs
 
- Quality of a Sanger sequence is not good in the initial bases
because of primer binding
 
- Also sequence quality degrades after 700 to 800 bases
 
- If the DNA fragment was cloned before sequencing , the cloning
vector sequence may be present in the final sequence.
 
- Database is mandatorily required for identification of the
protein sequence
 
Advantages of using Edman degradation
- No sample pre-treatment required .
 
- Identification possible for unknown proteins not registered in
databases
 
- Highly efficient to find the protein sequence
 
- Can be used to sequence long pieces of DNA beyond 1000bp
 
- It can differentiate even isobaric amino acids like Leu and
Ile.