Computation of direct and inverse mutations with the SEGM web server (Stochastic Evolution of Genetic Motifs): An application to splice sites of human genome introns

Abstract

We present here the SEGM web server (Stochastic Evolution of Genetic Motifs) in order to study the evolution of genetic motifs both in the direct evolutionary sense (past–present) and in the inverse evolutionary sense (present–past). The genetic motifs studied can be nucleotides, dinucleotides and trinucleotides. As an example of an application of SEGM and to understand its functionalities, we give an analysis of inverse mutations of splice sites of human genome introns. SEGM is freely accessible at http://lsiit-bioinfo.u-strasbg.fr:8080/webMathematica/SEGM/SEGM.html directly or by the web site http://dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr/~michel/. To our knowledge, this SEGM web server is to date the only computational biology software in this evolutionary approach.