PatternHunter: faster and more sensitive homology search.

Computer Science Department, University of Western Ontario, London N6A 5B8, Canada Bioinformatics Solutions Inc., 145 Columbia Street West, Waterloo, Ont. N2L 3L2, Canada.

MOTIVATION: Genomics and proteomics studies routinely depend on homology searches based on the strategy of finding short seed matches which are then extended. The exploding genomic data growth presents a dilemma for DNA homology search techniques: increasing seed size decreases sensitivity whereas decreasing seed size slows down computation. RESULTS: We present a new homology search algorithm 'PatternHunter' that uses a novel seed model for increased sensitivity and new hit-processing techniques for significantly increased speed. At Blast levels of sensitivity, PatternHunter is able to find homologies between sequences as large as human chromosomes, in mere hours on a desktop. AVAILABILITY: PatternHunter is available at http://www.bioinformaticssolutions.com, as a commercial package. It runs on all platforms that support Java. PatternHunter technology is being patented; commercial use requires a license from BSI, while non-commercial use will be free.

PMID: 11934743 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]