Using multiple alignments to improve seeded local alignment algorithms

Nucleic Acids Res. 2005 Aug 12;33(14):4563-77. doi: 10.1093/nar/gki767. Print 2005.

Abstract

Multiple alignments among genomes are becoming increasingly prevalent. This trend motivates the development of tools for efficient homology search between a query sequence and a database of multiple alignments. In this paper, we present an algorithm that uses the information implicit in a multiple alignment to dynamically build an index that is weighted most heavily towards the promising regions of the multiple alignment. We have implemented Typhon, a local alignment tool that incorporates our indexing algorithm, which our test results show to be more sensitive than algorithms that index only a sequence. This suggests that when applied on a whole-genome scale, Typhon should provide improved homology searches in time comparable to existing algorithms.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Animals
  • Base Sequence
  • Databases, Nucleic Acid
  • Genomics / methods*
  • Humans
  • Sequence Alignment / methods*
  • Software*