Mathematics of Genome Analysis (Cambridge Studies in Mathematical Biology, Series Number 17)

The massive research effort known as the Human Genome Project is an attempt to record the sequence of the three trillion nucleotides that make up the human genome and to identify individual genes within this sequence. While the basic effort is of course a biological one, the description and classification of sequences also lend themselves naturally to mathematical and statistical modeling. This short textbook on the mathematics of genome analysis presents a brief description of several ways in which mathematics and statistics are being used in genome analysis and sequencing. It will be of interest not only to students but also to professional mathematicians curious about the subject.

The massive research effort known as the Human Genome Project is an attempt to record the sequence of the three trillion nucleotides that make up the human genome and to identify individual genes within this sequence. The description and classification of sequences is heavily dependent on mathematical and statistical models. This short textbook presents a brief description of several ways in which mathematics and statistics are being used in genome analysis and sequencing.

The massive research effort known as the Human Genome Project is an attempt to record the sequence of the three trillion nucleotides that make up the human genome and to identify individual genes within this sequence. The description and classification of sequences is heavily dependent on mathematical and statistical models. This concise text presents a brief description of several ways in which mathematics and statistics are being used in genome analysis and sequencing. The realization that the genetic blueprint of a living organism is recorded in its DNA molecules developed over more than a century - slowly on the scale of the lifetime of the individual, but instantaneously on the scale of societal development.