def trim_sequences(variant_sequence, reference_context):
    """
    A VariantSequence and ReferenceContext may contain a different number of
    nucleotides before the variant locus. Furthermore, the VariantSequence is
    always expressed in terms of the positive strand against which it aligned,
    but reference transcripts may have sequences from the negative strand of the
    genome. Take the reverse complement of the VariantSequence if the
    ReferenceContext is from negative strand transcripts and trim either
    sequence to ensure that the prefixes are of the same length.

    Parameters
    ----------
    variant_sequence : VariantSequence

    reference_context : ReferenceContext

    Returns a tuple with the following fields:
        1) cDNA prefix of variant sequence, trimmed to be same length as the
           reference prefix. If the reference context was on the negative
           strand then this is the trimmed sequence *after* the variant from
           the genomic DNA sequence.
        2) cDNA sequence of the variant nucleotides, in reverse complement if
           the reference context is on the negative strand.
        3) cDNA sequence of the nucleotides after the variant nucleotides. If
           the reference context is on the negative strand then this sequence
           is the reverse complement of the original prefix sequence.
        4) Reference sequence before the variant locus, trimmed to be the
           same length as the variant prefix.
        5) Reference sequence after the variant locus, untrimmed.
        6) Number of nucleotides trimmed from the reference sequence, used
           later for adjustint offset to first complete codon.
    """
    cdna_prefix = variant_sequence.prefix
    cdna_alt = variant_sequence.alt
    cdna_suffix = variant_sequence.suffix

    # if the transcript is on the reverse strand then we have to
    # take the sequence PREFIX|VARIANT|SUFFIX
    # and take the complement of XIFFUS|TNAIRAV|XIFERP
    if reference_context.strand == "-":
        # notice that we are setting the *prefix* to be reverse complement
        # of the *suffix* and vice versa
        cdna_prefix, cdna_alt, cdna_suffix = (
            reverse_complement_dna(cdna_suffix),
            reverse_complement_dna(cdna_alt),
            reverse_complement_dna(cdna_prefix)
        )

    reference_sequence_before_variant = reference_context.sequence_before_variant_locus
    reference_sequence_after_variant = reference_context.sequence_after_variant_locus

    # trim the reference prefix and the RNA-derived prefix sequences to the same length
    if len(reference_sequence_before_variant) > len(cdna_prefix):
        n_trimmed_from_reference = len(reference_sequence_before_variant) - len(cdna_prefix)
        n_trimmed_from_variant = 0
    elif len(reference_sequence_before_variant) < len(cdna_prefix):
        n_trimmed_from_variant = len(cdna_prefix) - len(reference_sequence_before_variant)
        n_trimmed_from_reference = 0
    else:
        n_trimmed_from_variant = 0
        n_trimmed_from_reference = 0

    reference_sequence_before_variant = reference_sequence_before_variant[
        n_trimmed_from_reference:]
    cdna_prefix = cdna_prefix[n_trimmed_from_variant:]

    return (
        cdna_prefix,
        cdna_alt,
        cdna_suffix,
        reference_sequence_before_variant,
        reference_sequence_after_variant,
        n_trimmed_from_reference
    )