STATISTICAL STUDIES OF BIOMOLECULAR SEQUENCES - SCORE-BASED METHODS

The massive accumulation of DNA and protein sequence data poses challe nges and opportunities in terms of interpretation and analysis. This p resentation reviews the method of score-based sequence analysis with t he objectives of discerning distinctive segments in single sequences a nd identifying significant common segments in sequence comparisons. A number of new results are described here for both the theory and its a pplications. These include distributional theory involving several hig h scoring segments in single sequences, distribution formulas for gene ral scoring regimes in multiple sequence comparisons, bounds for perio dic scoring assignments, sensitivity analysis of genome composition an d refinements on predicting exons and genes in DNA sequences.