Patent ID: 7599801

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for preparing a profile of sequences of biological polymers, comprising: obtaining by a suitably programmed computer access to a profile database having profiles registered therein in advance, each of the profiles being obtained by at least one of multiple alignment analysis and evolutionary relationship analysis among a group of sequences of biological polymers, each profile including sequence names of sequences contained in the group, corresponding sequence IDs of sequences contained in the group, and a correlation diagram or multiple alignments obtained by performing said at least one of multiple alignment analysis and evolutionary relationship analysis on the group; receiving by the computer a plurality of sequences of interest for which a new profile is to be prepared; searching by the computer the profile database for a target profile of a sequence group that contains the largest number of sequences included in the plurality of sequences of interest; determining by the computer if each of the plurality of sequences of interest is included in the target profile thereby deciding if it is necessary to perform at least one of multiple alignment analysis and evolutionary relationship analysis on some or all of the plurality of sequences of interest based on a correlation diagram or multiple alignments contained in the target profile; performing by the computer said at least one of multiple alignment analysis and evolutionary relationship analysis on either only some or none of the plurality of sequences of interest based on a correlation diagram or multiple alignments contained in the target profile without performing said at least one of multiple alignment analysis and evolutionary relationship analysis among the sequence group of the target profile again; incorporating by the computer names of the sequences of interest, corresponding sequence IDs, and a correlation diagram or multiple alignments obtained by the performing step into the target profile as the new profile; registering by the computer the new profile in the profile database; and displaying by a display apparatus a correlation diagram or multiple alignments of the sequences of interest contained in the new profile, wherein when each of the plurality of sequences of interest is included in the target profile, the target profile is determined by the computer as the new profile without performing said at least one of multiple alignment analysis and evolutionary relationship analysis on the plurality of sequences of interest, and wherein when the plurality of sequences of interest are partially included in the target profile, said at least one of multiple alignment analysis and evolutionary relationship is necessarily performed by the computer on sequence of the plurality of sequences of interest which are not contained in the sequence group of the target profile, based on said correlation diagram or multiple alignments contained in the target profile, to obtain the new profile.