A new interactive protein sequence alignment program and comparison of its results with widely used algorithms

Area of Science:

• Bioinformatics
• Computational Biology
• Sequence Analysis

Background:

• Sequence comparison is fundamental in bioinformatics.
• Existing tools like ALIGN and BESTFIT have limitations in interactive analysis.
• Visualizing sequence data aids in understanding biological relationships.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a new computer program for interactive sequence comparison.
• To enhance the visualization of sequence data using physiochemical properties.
• To provide a user-friendly interface for selecting sequence segments for matching.

Main Methods:

• Development of a computer program with interactive capabilities.
• Graphical display of search matrices incorporating residue physiochemical characteristics.
• Multilength segmental comparison with user-defined sequence spans via a mousing device.

Main Results:

• The program provides an interactive graphical interface for sequence comparison.
• It enables the selection of specific sequence spans for detailed analysis.
• Comparative analysis showed improved or comparable results to ALIGN and BESTFIT.

Conclusions:

• The developed program offers an effective and interactive approach to sequence comparison.
• Graphical visualization and user interaction enhance the analysis of sequence data.
• This tool represents a valuable addition to bioinformatics software for sequence analysis.