Phred quality scores are used for assessment of sequence quality, recognition and removal of low-quality sequence (end clipping), and determination of accurate consensus sequences.
Originally, Phred quality scores were primarily used by the sequence assembly program Phrap. Phrap was routinely used in some of the largest sequencing projects in the Human Genome Sequencing Project and is currently one of the most widely used DNA sequence assembly programs in the biotech industry. Phrap uses Phred quality scores to determine highly accurate consensus sequences and to estimate the quality of the consensus sequences. Phrap also uses Phred quality scores to estimate whether discrepancies between two overlapping sequences are more likely to arise from random errors, or from different copies of a repeated sequence.
Within the Human Genome Project, the most important use of Phred quality scores was for automatic determination of consensus sequences. Before Phred and Phrap, scientists had to carefully look at discrepancies between overlapping DNA fragments; often, this involved manual determination of the highest-quality sequence, and manual editing of any errors. Phrap's use of Phred quality scores effectively automated finding the highest-quality consensus sequence; in most cases, this completely circumvents the need for any manual editing. As a result, the estimated error rate in assemblies that were created automatically with Phred and Phrap is typically substantially lower than the error rate of manually edited sequence.
In 2009, many commonly used software packages make use of Phred quality scores, albeit to a different extent. Programs like Sequencher use quality scores for display, end clipping, and consensus determination; other programs like CodonCode Aligner also implement quality-based consensus methods.