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Calculating percent identity between protein or DNA sequences with a word processor.
1Department of Biological Chemistry and Structure, University of Health Sciences, Chicago Medical School, IL 60064.
Protein Sequences & Data Analysis
|July 1, 1990
Summary
Two Microsoft Word macros calculate sequence identity for protein and DNA alignments. These tools quantify matches, mismatches, and percent identity, aiding manual sequence alignment tasks.
Area of Science:
- Bioinformatics
- Computational Biology
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- Manual sequence alignment is crucial for understanding protein and DNA relationships.
- Existing computational tools may not always be suitable for visually guided alignments.
- Accurate quantification of sequence similarity is essential for biological interpretation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe two novel macros for Microsoft Word.
- To enable calculation of percentage identity for protein and DNA sequences.
- To assist researchers in analyzing sequence alignments generated manually.
Main Methods:
- Development of two macros for Microsoft Word.
- Utilizing user-prepared multiple sequence alignment files.
- Automated calculation of matches, mismatches, and total compared positions.
Main Results:
- Macros successfully calculate percentage identity between sequences.
- Quantification includes number of matches, mismatches, and total positions.
- Provides a quantitative measure for visually assessed alignments.
Conclusions:
- The described macros offer a practical solution for calculating sequence identity.
- These tools are particularly valuable for alignments that are difficult to automate.
- Facilitates quantitative analysis of protein and DNA sequence comparisons.