Researchers have used the tool to identify genes for use in a novel DNA-based malaria vaccine. In creating his software, Salzberg uses several different computational strategies. Suppose someone who speaks only English is asked to distinguish spoken French from gibberish. Most people could do it, says Salzberg. They could tell that what they were hearing was French, even though they would not understand the meaning of the French words.
Language has patterns.
There are numerous regularities. Genes contain idiosyncratic stretches of sequence that distinguish them from the surrounding blur of the total genome. The frequency and distribution pattern of these sequences are clues to the presence of a gene, says Salzberg. Just as being able to recognize French is not the same as comprehending it, locating genes is far from understanding their function. That job, explains Salzberg, he leaves to the world's biologists.