I am new to bioinformatics and currently learning how to use Bowtie 2. As written in the manual:
A pair that aligns with the expected relative mate orientation and with the expected range of distances between mates is said to align "concordantly". If both mates have unique alignments, but the alignments do not match paired-end expectations (i.e. the mates aren't in the expected relative orientation, or aren't within the expected distance range, or both), the pair is said to align "discordantly".
I have read about the basics of paired-end sequencing and orientation (in the molecular biology sense). In summary, my understanding is that in paired-end sequencing we sequence both ends of a DNA fragment at the 5' end and the 3' end (we call them mate 1 and mate 2) and by knowing the expected length between the mates we can better align the fragment to a reference genome.
My question is, what is it meant by two mates having an expected relative orientation? If am using Bowtie 2 and giving it a file with all the first mates and another one with all the corresponding second mates, how can two mates align without first having the expected orientation?