Patent ID: 6996474

Claim:
Automated method for identifying orthologous polypeptide or polynucleotide sequences from databases, the databases comprising at least a first and a second set of sequences, each set being derived from a different species, comprising the steps of: (a) establishing from the first set of sequences derived from a first species a non-redundant list of query sequences having common features of interest (first family members), using a database search program; (b) performing sequence alignments with the first family members in a second set of sequences derived from a second species, using a database search program and a preset similarity threshold, giving a list of second family members and their similarity values with the first family members; (c) establishing a two dimensional matrix displaying the first and second family members and their respective similarity values resulting from step (b), optionally displaying only those second family members having similarity values exceeding a preset threshold value; (d) selecting from the matrix those pairs of first and second family members for which the similarity values are closest to the value zero among all of the alignments that involve one of the two pair's members (orthologs).