Question

Which of the alignment does not assume that the two sequences in question have similarity over the entire length?

• A. Local
• B. Global
• C. Heuristic
• D. Clustal

Hint:

• Global Alignment (e.g., Needleman-Wunsch) Aligns sequences from end to end. Assumes overall similarity.
• Local Alignment (e.g., Smith-Waterman, BLAST, FASTA) Finds best matching segments/regions within sequences. Does not assume overall similarity. Useful for finding conserved domains or motifs.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

In the context of sequence alignment in biotechnology, different types of alignments are used to align sequences based on their similarity:

• Global Alignment: Assumes that the sequences have similarity over their entire length. It attempts to align the entire length of the sequences from start to end.
• Local Alignment: Does not assume that the sequences have similarity over the entire length. Instead, it finds the region of highest similarity between two sequences and aligns those regions.
• Heuristic Alignment: Uses algorithms to find an approximate alignment quickly but does not necessarily consider global or local assumptions explicitly.
• Clustal: A method used for multiple sequence alignment which assumes a certain level of global alignment across sequences.

The correct answer in this context is Local Alignment because it does not require that the two sequences have similarity over their entire length. Instead, it focuses on locally similar regions.