Multiple sequence alignment: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:35, 11 June 2006

Revision as of 19:36, 11 June 2006

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The multiple alignment problem consists of inferring all [[Homology (biology)|homologous]] characters among these sequences. The characters may consist of single [[Nucleotide|

nucleotides]], [[Amino acid|amino acids]], genes, or any sequence segments that may share an evolutionary origin.

Multiple alignments may be used to study which sequences have been conserved over time. This is the starting point of [[Comparative genomics|comparative genomics]] and [[Molecular phylogeny| molecular phylogenetics]] studies. The theoretical basis for multiple sequence alignments is that the sequences have evolved by [[point mutation]]s, [[deletion mutation]]s or [[insertionsinsertion mutation]]s. Point mutations would result in the alignment having differing characters in the same column of the alignment, while deletions and insertions would have gaps in the columns effected by the insertion or deletion.

==Multiple sequence alignment programs and techniques==