Amino acid translation program for full-length cDNA sequences with frameshift errors

Here we present an amino acid translation program designed to suggest the p osition of experimental frameshift errors and predict amino acid sequences for full-length cDNA sequences having phred scores. Our program generates a rtificial insertions into artificial deletions from low-accuracy positions of the original sequence, thereby generating many candidate sequences. The validity of the most probable sequence (the likelihood that it represents t he actual protein) is evaluated by using a score (Va) that is calculated in light of the Kozak consensus, preferred codon usage, and position of the i nitiation codon. To evaluate the software, we have used a database in which , out of 612 cDNA sequences, 524 (86%) carried 773 frameshift errors in the coding sequence. Our software detected and corrected 48% of the total fram eshift errors in 62% of the total cDNA sequences with frameshift errors. Th e false positive rate of frameshift correction was 9%, and 91% of the sugge sted frameshifts were true.