Recent Evolutions of Multiple Sequence Alignment Algorithms

Abstract

An ever-increasing number of biological modeling methods depend on the assembly of an accurate multiple sequence alignment (MSA). These include phylogenetic trees, profiles, and structure prediction. Assembling a suitable MSA is not, however, a trivial task, and none of the existing methods have yet managed to deliver biologically perfect MSAs. Many of the algorithms published these last years have been extensively described [1–3], and this review focuses only on the latest developments, including meta-methods and template-based alignment techniques.