Sequence Database Search Using Jumping Alignments

Rainer Spang, Marc Rehmsmeier and Jens Stoye

August 2000

We describe a new algorithm for amino acid sequence classification and the detection of remote homologues. The algorithm is based on the dynamic programming principle and evaluates the fit of a candidate sequence to a given family of sequences by means of a new score called the ``jumping alignment score''. In a jumping alignment, a candidate sequence is locally aligned to one reference sequence in the family, and in addition the reference sequence may change within the alignment. We show that the algorithm performs well in recovering subfamilies of the SCOP database.

Keywords: homology search, dynamic programming, bioinformatics


The manuscript is available in postscript format