Methods of sequencing nucleic acids and error correction of sequence reads

A method of sequencing nucleic acids of interest (NAOIs), comprising:

• a. providing a sample comprising parental NAOIs;
• b. attaching oligonucleotides to the parental NAOIs to provide labelled parental NAOIs, wherein the oligonucleotides comprise a PCR cycle counter generator sequence comprising at least one universal nucleotide base;
• c. amplifying the labelled parental NAOIs using PCR, wherein each cycle of the PCR amplification generates a new PCR cycle counter every time a labelled parental NAOI is copied by a polymerase, to provide an amplified library of daughter NAOIs each containing a PCR cycle counter sequence;
• d. sequencing the amplified library of daughter NAOIs to provide a set of sequence reads, wherein each sequence read comprises a NAOI-originating component and a PCR cycle counter component;
• and
• e. distinguishing true variants in parental NAOI sequences from false variants in parental NAOI sequences by counting the number of different PCR counter sequences.