Given a fixed alignment scoring scheme, the bounded length (respectively, bounded total length) Smith-Waterman alignment problem on a pair of strings of lengths m, n, asks for the maximum alignment score across all substring pairs, such that the first substring's length (respectively, the sum of the two substrings' lengths) is above the given threshold w. The latter problem was introduced by Arslan and Eğecioğlu under the name “local alignment with length threshold”. They proposed a dynamic programming algorithm solving the problem in time O(mn2), and also an approximation algorithm running in time O(rmn), where r is a parameter controlling the accuracy of approximation. We show that both these problems can be solved exactly in time O(mn), assuming a rational scoring scheme; furthermore, this solution can be used to obtain an exact algorithm for the normalised bounded total length Smith-Waterman alignment problem, running in time O(mn log n). Our algorithms rely on the techniques of fast window-substring alignment and implicit unit-Monge matrix searching, developed previously by the author and others.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication19th International Workshop on Algorithms in Bioinformatics, WABI 2019
EditorsKatharina T. Huber, Dan Gusfield
PublisherSchloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing
ISBN (Electronic)9783959771238
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2019
Event19th International Workshop on Algorithms in Bioinformatics, WABI 2019 - Niagara Falls, United States
Duration: 8 Sep 201910 Sep 2019

Publication series

NameLeibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs
Volume143
ISSN (Print)1868-8969

Conference

Conference19th International Workshop on Algorithms in Bioinformatics, WABI 2019
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityNiagara Falls
Period8/09/1910/09/19

    Scopus subject areas

  • Software

    Research areas

  • Local alignment, Matrix searching, Sequence alignment, Smith-Waterman alignment

ID: 97181197