Swords: a statistical tool for analysing large DNA sequences

Abstract

In this article, we present some simple yet effective statistical techniques for analysing and comparing large DNA sequences. These techniques are based on frequency distributions of DNA words in a large sequence, and have been packaged into a software called swords. Using sequences available in public domain databases housed in the Internet, we demonstrate how swords can be conveniently used by molecular biologists and geneticists to unmask biologically important features hidden in large sequences and assess their statistical significance.