A metric approach for comparing DNA sequences

Abstract

Purpose

This paper attempts to compare two biological successions, in general any two successions, analysing the differences between them.

Design/methodology/approach

An algorithm was designed based on a metric which enables one to calculate the associated distance between two successions and, based on the distance obtained, the type of mutations which have occurred was approached.

Findings

The empirical analysis shows that the transformations caused in the successions have been detected by the metric. Today there are numerous enormously powerful programs able to trawl entire databases and therefore the aim of this paper was not to compare these, but to demonstrate a different way of comparing two given successions.

Practical implications

The paper presents a comparison of two DNA successions having a measure of the degree of similarity between them and their possible mutations.

Originality/value

The metric presented is a generalisation of the Hamming distance in strings of different lengths. The software associated with the metric has made it possible to validate the results obtained.

Citation

Mora‐Mora, H., Lloret‐Climent, M. and Vives‐Macia, F. (2008), "A metric approach for comparing DNA sequences", Kybernetes, Vol. 37 No. 1, pp. 120-126. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920810851032