Measuring Global Credibility in Sequence Alignment
Author Information
Author(s): Webb-Robertson Bobbie-Jo M., McCue Lee Ann, Lawrence Charles E.
Primary Institution: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Hypothesis
How can we articulate the overall uncertainty of a selected estimating alignment and assess its reliability?
Conclusion
The study demonstrates that centroid alignments yield tighter credibility limits than traditional maximum similarity alignments.
Supporting Evidence
- Centroid alignments minimize the expected Hamming distance from the posterior weighted ensemble of alignments.
- The credibility limits for the gene sequence alignments are small, indicating high conservation.
- The study found significant differences in credibility limits between maximum similarity and centroid alignments.
Takeaway
This study looks at how to measure the reliability of sequence alignments in biology, showing that some methods give better estimates than others.
Methodology
The study employs a Bayesian probabilistic approach to assess alignment reliability and credibility limits using a sample of alignments.
Potential Biases
The reliance on a single scoring method may introduce bias in the assessment of alignment reliability.
Limitations
The findings are based on pairwise alignments and may not generalize to multiple alignments drawn from a common true alignment.
Statistical Information
P-Value
p<0.001
Statistical Significance
p<0.001
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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