home | help
RDF2(1) 		     General Commands Manual			 RDF2(1)

NAME
     prdf - test a protein sequence similarity for significance

SYNOPSIS
     prdf  [-f	# -g # -h -k # -O filename -s SMATRIX -w window-size ] sequence-
     file-1 sequence-file-2 [ ktup ] [ #-of-shuffles ]

     prdf [-fghks] - interactive mode

DESCRIPTION
     prdf is used to evaluate the significance of a protein sequence  similarity
     score by comparing two sequences and calculating initial and optimized sim-
     ilarity scores, and then repeatedly shuffling the second sequence, and cal-
     culating the initial and optimized scores.  Extreme value distributions are
     then  fit to each of the three distributions of scores.  The characteristic
     parameters of the extreme value distribution are then used to estimate  the
     probability  that	each of the unshuffled sequence scores would be obtained
     by chance in one sequence, or in a number of sequences equal to the  number
     of  shuffles.   This  program  is derived from rdf2, which was described by
     Pearson and Lipman, PNAS  (1988)  85:2444-2448,  and  Pearson  (Meth.  Enz.
     183:63-98).  Use of the extreme value distribution for estimating the prob-
     abilities	of  similarity	scores was described by Altshul and Karlin, PNAS
     (1990) 87:2264-2268.  The 'z-values' calculated by rdf2 are not as informa-
     tive as the P-values and expectations calculated by prdf.

     prdf also allows a more sophisticated shuffling  method:  residues  can  be
     shuffled  within a local window, so that the order of residues 1-10, 11-20,
     etc, is destroyed but a residue in the first 10 is  never	swapped  with  a
     residue outside the first ten, and so on for each local window.

EXAMPLES
     (1)    prdf -w 10 musplfm.aa lcbo.aa 1 250

     Compare  the  amino  acid	sequence  in  the  file  musplfm.aa with that in
     lcbo.aa, then shuffle lcbo.aa 250 times using a local shuffle with a window
     of 10 and calculate initial and optimized similarity scores using Ktup = 1.
     Report the significance of the unshuffled	musplfm/lcbo  comparison  scores
     with respect to the shuffled scores.

     (2)    prdf musplfm.aa lcbo.aa 2

     Compare  the  amino acid sequence in the file musplfm.aa with the sequences
     in the file lcbo.aa using ktup = 2.

     (3)    prdf

     Run prdf in interactive mode.  The program will prompt for the file name of
     the two query sequence files, the ktup, and the number of	shuffles  to  be
     used.   100  shuffles  are calculated by default; 250 - 500 shuffles should
     provide more accurate probability estimates.

OPTIONS
     prss can be directed to change the scoring matrix, gap penalties, and shuf-
     fle parameters by entering options on the	command  line  (preceeded  by  a
     `-'). All of the options should preceed the file names number of shuffles.

     -f #   Penalty for the first residue in a gap (-12 by default).

     -g #   Penalty for additional residues in a gap (-2 by default).

     -h     Do not display histogram of similarity scores.

     -k #   (GAPCUT) Sets the threshold for joining the initial regions for cal-
	    culating the initn score.

     -Q -q  "quiet" - do not prompt for filename.

     -O filename
	    send copy of results to "filename."

     -s str
	    (SMATRIX)  the  filename of an alternative scoring matrix file.  For
	    protein sequences, BLOSUM50 is used by default; PAM250 can	be  used
	    with the command line option -s 250(or with -s pam250.mat).

SEE ALSO
     fasta(1),lfasta(1),prss(1),protcodes(5)

AUTHOR
     Bill Pearson
     wrp@virginia.EDU

     The curve fitting routines in rweibull.c were provided by Phil Green, Wash-
     ington U., St. Louis.

				      local				 RDF2(1)

home | help