Patent ID: 7660676
Filing Date: 2010-02-09
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented nucleic-acid base sequence analyzing method, comprising the steps of: retrieving by a suitably programmed computer a plurality of fluorescent-light intensity waveform data sets obtained from a nucleic acid sequence, said waveform data sets corresponding to known base sequences; for each of said plurality of fluorescent-light intensity waveform data sets, performing by the computer normalization processing on fluorescent-light intensities of base types at each of peak positions of the data set with a fluorescent-light intensity of one base type that is maximum fluorescent-light intensity at said each peak position; calculating by the computer a plurality of mean values (M) and a plurality of standard deviations (S) of fluorescent-light intensity values at said each peak position corresponding to each known base type at said each peak position after said normalization processing; storing the calculation result obtained by said calculating step in a data storing unit, said storing step including recording the mean values (M) and the standard deviations (S) of the fluorescent-light intensity values at said each peak position corresponding to each known base of said waveform data sets; retrieving by the computer fluorescent-light intensity waveform data of a nucleic acid fragment of interest from an electrophoresis apparatus which performs electrophoresis on the nucleic acid fragment of interest; determining by the computer a temporary base sequence of said fragment of interest by calculating ratios between a fluorescent-light intensity of one of four base types which has a maximum intensity value among the four base types and fluorescent-light intensities of the other base types at each peak position, and comparing the calculated respective ratio with predetermined criterion; retrieving by the computer a base sequence having known bases and homology to the temporary base sequence from the data storing unit by comparing bases of the temporary base sequence with bases of sequences known stored in the data storing unit; calculating by the computer upper-limit values and lower-limit values based upon the mean values (M) and the standard deviations (S) of each peak position of a known base of the retrieved base sequence which corresponds to said unknown base of the temporary base sequence; comparing by the computer at each peak position and for each of four base types, each fluorescent-light intensity of four base types of the fragment of interest having the temporary base sequence with the upper-limit value and the lower-limit value respectively corresponding to the known base of the retrieved base sequence, if the fluorescent-light signal intensity of a certain base type at a certain peak position of the fragment of interest is positioned between the upper-limit value and the lower-limit value, identifying that said certain base type is contained at the certain peak position, and if the intensity of the certain base is not positioned between the upper-limit value and the lower-limit value, identifying that said certain base type is not contained at the certain peak position, and identifying a base type at the peak position by combining the base types contained at the peak position, and determining by the computer the nucleic-acid base sequence based on the identified base type at each peak position.