
                             EMBOSS: palindrome
     _________________________________________________________________
   
                              Program palindrome
                                       
Function

   Looks for inverted repeats in a nucleotide sequence
   
Description

   This looks for inverted repeats (stem loops) in a nucleotide sequence.
   
   It will find inverted repeats that include a proportion of mismatches
   and gaps (bulges in the stem loop).
   
   It works by finding all possible inverted matches satisfying the
   specified conditions of minimum and maximum length of palindrome,
   maximum gap between repeated regions and number of mismatches allowed.
   
   Secondary structures like inverted repeats in genomic sequences may be
   implicated in initiation of DNA replication.
   
Usage

   Here is a sample session with palindrome. As there are a number of
   overlapping possibilties in this sequence, we choose a longer minimum
   repeat length.

% palindrome
Input sequence: embl:hsts1
Enter minimum length of palindrome [10]: 15
Enter maximum length of palindrome [100]:
Enter maximum gap between repeated regions [100]:
Number of mismatches allowed [0]:
Output file [hsts1.pal]:
Report overlapping matches [Y]:

Command line arguments

   Mandatory qualifiers:
  [-insequence]        sequence   Sequence USA
   -minpallen          integer    Enter minimum length of palindrome
   -maxpallen          integer    Enter maximum length of palindrome
   -gaplimit           integer    Enter maximum gap between repeated regions
   -nummismatches      integer    Number of mismatches allowed
  [-outfile]           outfile    Output file name
   -[no]overlap        bool       Report overlapping matches

   Optional qualifiers: (none)
   Advanced qualifiers: (none)
   General qualifiers:
  -help                bool       report command line options. More
                                  information on associated and general
                                  qualifiers can be found with -help -verbose
   

   Mandatory qualifiers Allowed values Default
   [-insequence]
   (Parameter 1) Sequence USA Readable sequence Required
   -minpallen Enter minimum length of palindrome Integer 1 or more 10
   -maxpallen Enter maximum length of palindrome Any integer value 100
   -gaplimit Enter maximum gap between repeated regions Integer 0 or more
   100
   -nummismatches Number of mismatches allowed Positive integer 0
   [-outfile]
   (Parameter 2) Output file name Output file <sequence>.palindrome
   -[no]overlap Report overlapping matches Yes/No Yes
   Optional qualifiers Allowed values Default
   (none)
   Advanced qualifiers Allowed values Default
   (none)
   
Input file format

   The input for palindrome is a nucleotide sequence.
   
Output file format

   Here is the output file from the example run:

Palindromes of:  HSTS1
Sequence length is: 18596
Start at position: 1
End at position: 18596
Minimum length of Palindromes is: 15
Maximum length of Palindromes is: 100
Maximum gap between elements is: 100
Number of mismatches allowed in Palindrome: 0



Palindromes:
126   caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      |||||||||||||||||
217   gtttttttttttttttt   201

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
215   tttttttttttttttt   200

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
214   tttttttttttttttt   199

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
213   tttttttttttttttt   198

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
212   tttttttttttttttt   197

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
211   tttttttttttttttt   196

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
210   tttttttttttttttt   195

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
209   tttttttttttttttt   194

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
208   tttttttttttttttt   193

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
207   tttttttttttttttt   192

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
206   tttttttttttttttt   191

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa   142
      ||||||||||||||||
205   tttttttttttttttt   190

127   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagaccgccagggct   155
      |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
204   ttttttttttttttttctggcggtcccga   176


Data files

   None.
   
Notes

   Unless the qualifier '-nooverlap' is specified, palindrome makes no
   attempt to exclude subsets of previously found palindromes.
   
   Several examples can be seen in the sample output above.
   
References

   Some references on inverted repeats:
    1. Pearson CE, Zorbas H, Price GB, Zannis-Hadjopoulos M Inverted
       repeats, stem-loops, and cruciforms: significance for initiation
       of DNA replication. J Cell Biochem 1996 Oct;63(1):1-22
    2. Waldman AS, Tran H, Goldsmith EC, Resnick MA. q Long inverted
       repeats are an at-risk motif for recombination in mammalian cells.
       Genetics. 1999 Dec;153(4):1873-83. PMID: 10581292; UI: 20050682
    3. Jacobsen SE Gene silencing: Maintaining methylation patterns. Curr
       Biol 1999 Aug 26;9(16):R617-9
    4. Lewis S, Akgun E, Jasin M. Palindromic DNA and genome stability.
       Further studies. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1999 May 18;870:45-57. PMID:
       10415472; UI: 99343961
    5. Dai X, Greizerstein MB, Nadas-Chinni K, Rothman-Denes LB
       Supercoil-induced extrusion of a regulatory DNA hairpin. Proc Natl
       Acad Sci U S A 1997 Mar 18;94(6):2174-9
       
Warnings

   None.
   
Diagnostic Error Messages

   None.
   
Exit status

   It always exists with a status of 0.
   
Known bugs

   None.
   
See also

   Program name                    Description
   einverted    Finds DNA inverted repeats
   equicktandem Finds tandem repeats
   etandem      Looks for tandem repeats in a nucleotide sequence
   
   einverted also looks for inverted repeats but is much slower and more
   sensitive, as it finds low-quality (very mismatched) repeats and
   repeats with gaps.
   
Author(s)

   This application was written by Mark Faller (mfaller@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk)
   
History

   Written (1999) - Mark Faller.
   
Target users

   This program is intended to be used by everyone and everything, from
   naive users to embedded scripts.
   
Comments
