Glossary

Nanopore sequencing and signal terminology are connected across experiment and analysis.

Glossary is part of the Nanopore Wiki learning path. This glossary defines common terms used in nanopore technology, sequencing, signal analysis, and experimental workflows.

Core concepts

• Open-pore current: baseline current through an unoccupied pore.
• Blockade depth: the magnitude of current reduction or signal shift during an event.
• Dwell time: the duration for which a molecule produces a detectable event.
• Basecalling: conversion of nanopore raw signal into nucleotide sequence and quality values.
• POD5, FAST5, FASTQ, and BAM: common file formats in Oxford Nanopore workflows.

Scientific basis

• Open-pore current: baseline current through an unoccupied pore.
• Blockade depth: the magnitude of current reduction or signal shift during an event.
• Interpretations should be tied to measurable quantities, experimental controls, and documented analysis settings.
• Claims should distinguish direct observations from downstream inference.

How to use this page

Step	Description
1	Use definitions to keep wording consistent across pages.
2	Prefer exact terms such as open-pore current, blockade event, and Q score.
3	When a term has platform-specific meaning, state the platform explicitly.

Typical applications

• Quick reference for new readers.
• Editorial consistency across translated pages.
• Support for classroom and laboratory onboarding.

Quality checks

• Record platform, pore or flow-cell type, chemistry, voltage or acquisition settings, and software versions.
• Use negative controls, positive controls, and replicate measurements where the claim depends on specificity.
• Report limitations such as noise, bias, sample degradation, pore instability, or model-dependent analysis.
• Use the related pages to move from introductory terms to experimental or computational detail.

Interpretation limits

• Using sequencing terms for non-sequencing nanopore experiments without qualification.
• Translating file formats or instrument names that should remain unchanged.
• A single result should not be generalized beyond the sample, protocol, instrument state, and analysis pipeline used.
• Medical, legal, regulatory, or commercial decisions require domain-specific validation beyond this educational summary.

Related pages

• Introduction
• Bioinformatics
• Data analysis
• Nanopore sequencing

References

• Oxford Nanopore file formats
• FASTQ format