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RSS(1)			     General Commands Manual			  RSS(1)

NAME
     prss - test a protein sequence similarity for significance

SYNOPSIS
     prss  [-Q	-f # -g # -h -O file -s SMATRIX -w # ] sequence-file-1 sequence-
     file-2 [ #-of-shuffles ]

     prss [-fghsw] - interactive mode

DESCRIPTION
     prss is used to evaluate the significance of a protein sequence  similarity
     score by comparing two sequences and calculating optimal similarity scores,
     and  then repeatedly shuffling the second sequence, and calculating optimal
     similarity scores using the Smith-Waterman algorithm. An extreme value dis-
     tribution is then fit to the shuffled-sequence 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.	prss uses calcu-
     lates  optimal  scores  using  the  same  rigorous Smith-Waterman algorithm
     (Smith and Waterman, J. Mol. Biol. (1983) 147:195-197) used by the  ssearch
     program.

     prss  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)    prss  -w 10 musplfm.aa lcbo.aa

     Compare the amino acid  sequence  in  the	file  musplfm.aa  with	that  in
     lcbo.aa, then shuffle lcbo.aa 100 times using a local shuffle with a window
     of  10.   Report the significance of the unshuffled musplfm/lcbo comparison
     scores with respect to the shuffled scores.

     (2)    prss musplfm.aa lcbo.aa

     Compare the amino acid sequence in the file musplfm.aa with  the  sequences
     in the file lcbo.aa.

     (3)    prss

     Run prss in interactive mode.  The program will prompt for the file name of
     the  two  query  sequence files 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.

     -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
     ssearch(1), prdf(1), fasta(1), lfasta(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.

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