Indexing scheme and similarity measures for macromolecular sequences

Nucleotide composition and distribution along a DNA sequence is known to pl ay a vital role in the determination of gene functions. Protein coding regi ons, regulatory sequences, and other functional regions are determined gene rally by homology studies with comparable genes from other species or speci fic experimental verification. With the rapid and explosive increase in seq uence information, new computational techniques for rapid determination of such information and comparative studies of different genes are becoming ne cessary which ideally should encompass not only DNA sequences but other mac romolecular sequences as well.