prank - 0.0.170427+dfsg-3 main

PRANK is a probabilistic multiple alignment program for DNA, codon
and amino-acid sequences. It's based on a novel algorithm that treats
insertions correctly and avoids over-estimation of the number of
deletion events. In addition, PRANK borrows ideas from maximum
likelihood methods used in phylogenetics and correctly takes into
account the evolutionary distances between sequences. Lastly, PRANK
allows for defining a potential structure for sequences to be aligned
and then, simultaneously with the alignment, predicts the locations
of structural units in the sequences.
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PRANK is a command-line program for UNIX-style environments but the
same sequence alignment engine is implemented in the graphical
program PRANKSTER. In addition to providing a user-friendly interface
to those not familiar with Unix systems, PRANKSTER is an alignment
browser for alignments saved in the HSAML format. The novel format
allows for storing all the information generated by the aligner and
the alignment browser is a convenient way to analyse and manipulate
the data.
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PRANK aims at an evolutionarily correct sequence alignment and often
the result looks different from ones generated with other alignment
methods. There are, however, cases where the different look is caused
by violations of the method's assumptions. To understand why things
may go wrong and how to avoid that, read this explanation of
differences between PRANK and traditional progressive alignment
methods.