The SEQANAL and SEQTALK programs: a new method of access to high-resolution nucleotide sequence comparison and analysis programs from a remote laboratory mini- or microcomputer

A new method of access has been devised for biologists requiringthe use of computer programs offering high-resolution analysisand comparison of nucleotide sequence data. The strategy involvesthe development of a pair of computer programs, called SEQANALand SEQTALK, designed to operate in tandem. SEQANAL is a largeand complex program intended to be used to discover regionsof internal repeats and dyad symmetries within one sequence,or regions of homology, complementarity or optimal alignmentbetween two sequences. Three algorithms are supported: thoseof Staden (1977, 1978); of Korn et al. (1977); Queen and Korn(1980); and the newly-described exhaustive tree-searching algorithmof Burnett et al. (1985, 1986). The SEQTALK program is a small,portable, interactive, frontend program with which the usercan specify the instructions to control the SEQANAL program.Together, the SEQANAL and SEQTALK programs permit analyses tobe performed at a remote facility on a mainframe computer underthe complete control of a distant user equipped with minimalcomputing facilities, and without needing networking facilities. Received on May 23, 1985; accepted on August 13, 1985