how to match dna sequence pattern - algorithm

Question

I am getting a trouble finding an approach to solve this problem.
Input-output sequences are as follows :
**input1 :** aaagctgctagag
**output1 :** a3gct2ag2
**input2 :** aaaaaaagctaagctaag
**output2 :** a6agcta2ag
Input nsequence can be of 10^6 characters and largest continuous patterns will be considered.
For example for input2 "agctaagcta" output will not be "agcta2gcta" but it will be "agcta2".
Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

Explanation of the algorithm:
Having a sequence S with symbols s(1), s(2),…, s(N).
Let B(i) be the best compressed sequence with elements s(1), s(2),…,s(i).
So, for example, B(3) will be the best compressed sequence for s(1), s(2), s(3).
What we want to know is B(N).
To find it, we will proceed by induction. We want to calculate B(i+1), knowing B(i), B(i-1), B(i-2), …, B(1), B(0), where B(0) is empty sequence, and and B(1) = s(1). At the same time, this constitutes a proof that the solution is optimal. ;)
To calculate B(i+1), we will pick the best sequence among the candidates:
Candidate sequences where the last block has one element:
B(i )s(i+1)1
B(i-1)s(i+1)2 ; only if s(i) = s(i+1)
B(i-2)s(i+1)3 ; only if s(i-1) = s(i) and s(i) = s(i+1)
…
B(1)s(i+1)[i-1] ; only if s(2)=s(3) and s(3)=s(4) and … and s(i) = s(i+1)
B(0)s(i+1)i = s(i+1)i ; only if s(1)=s(2) and s(2)=s(3) and … and s(i) = s(i+1)
Candidate sequences where the last block has 2 elements:
B(i-1)s(i)s(i+1)1
B(i-3)s(i)s(i+1)2 ; only if s(i-2)s(i-1)=s(i)s(i+1)
B(i-5)s(i)s(i+1)3 ; only if s(i-4)s(i-3)=s(i-2)s(i-1) and s(i-2)s(i-1)=s(i)s(i+1)
…
Candidate sequences where the last block has 3 elements:
…
Candidate sequences where the last block has 4 elements:
…
…
Candidate sequences where last block has n+1 elements:
s(1)s(2)s(3)………s(i+1)
For each possibility, the algorithm stops when the sequence block is no longer repeated. And that’s it.
The algorithm will be some thing like this in psude-c code:
B(0) = “”
for (i=1; i<=N; i++) {
// Calculate all the candidates for B(i)
BestCandidate=null
for (j=1; j<=i; j++) {
Calculate all the candidates of length (i)
r=1;
do {
Candidadte = B([i-j]*r-1) s(i-j+1)…s(i-1)s(i) r
If ( (BestCandidate==null)
|| (Candidate is shorter that BestCandidate))
{
BestCandidate=Candidate.
}
r++;
} while ( ([i-j]*r <= i)
&&(s(i-j*r+1) s(i-j*r+2)…s(i-j*r+j) == s(i-j+1) s(i-j+2)…s(i-j+j))
}
B(i)=BestCandidate
}
Hope that this can help a little more.
The full C program performing the required task is given below. It runs in O(n^2). The central part is only 30 lines of code.
EDIT I have restructured a little bit the code, changed the names of the variables and added some comment in order to be more readable.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <limits.h>
// This struct represents a compressed segment like atg4, g3, agc1
struct Segment {
char *elements;
int nElements;
int count;
};
// As an example, for the segment agagt3 elements would be:
// {
// elements: "agagt",
// nElements: 5,
// count: 3
// }
struct Sequence {
struct Segment lastSegment;
struct Sequence *prev; // Points to a sequence without the last segment or NULL if it is the first segment
int totalLen; // Total length of the compressed sequence.
};
// as an example, for the sequence agt32ta5, the representation will be:
// {
// lastSegment:{"ta" , 2 , 5},
// prev: #A,
// totalLen: 8
// }
// and A will be
// {
// lastSegment{ "agt", 3, 32},
// prev: NULL,
// totalLen: 5
// }
// This function converts a sequence to a string.
// You have to free the string after using it.
// The strategy is to construct the string from right to left.
char *sequence2string(struct Sequence *S) {
char *Res=malloc(S->totalLen + 1);
char *digits="0123456789";
int p= S->totalLen;
Res[p]=0;
while (S!=NULL) {
// first we insert the count of the last element.
// We do digit by digit starting with the units.
int C = S->lastSegment.count;
while (C) {
p--;
Res[p] = digits[ C % 10 ];
C /= 10;
}
p -= S->lastSegment.nElements;
strncpy(Res + p , S->lastSegment.elements, S->lastSegment.nElements);
S = S ->prev;
}
return Res;
}
// Compresses a dna sequence.
// Returns a string with the in sequence compressed.
// The returned string must be freed after using it.
char *dnaCompress(char *in) {
int i,j;
int N = strlen(in);; // Number of elements of a in sequence.
// B is an array of N+1 sequences where B(i) is the best compressed sequence sequence of the first i characters.
// What we want to return is B[N];
struct Sequence *B;
B = malloc((N+1) * sizeof (struct Sequence));
// We first do an initialization for i=0
B[0].lastSegment.elements="";
B[0].lastSegment.nElements=0;
B[0].lastSegment.count=0;
B[0].prev = NULL;
B[0].totalLen=0;
// and set totalLen of all the sequences to a very HIGH VALUE in this case N*2 will be enougth, We will try different sequences and keep the minimum one.
for (i=1; i<=N; i++) B[i].totalLen = INT_MAX; // A very high value
for (i=1; i<=N; i++) {
// at this point we want to calculate B[i] and we know B[i-1], B[i-2], .... ,B[0]
for (j=1; j<=i; j++) {
// Here we will check all the candidates where the last segment has j elements
int r=1; // number of times the last segment is repeated
int rNDigits=1; // Number of digits of r
int rNDigitsBound=10; // We will increment r, so this value is when r will have an extra digit.
// when r = 0,1,...,9 => rNDigitsBound = 10
// when r = 10,11,...,99 => rNDigitsBound = 100
// when r = 100,101,.,999 => rNDigitsBound = 1000 and so on.
do {
// Here we analitze a candidate B(i).
// where the las segment has j elements repeated r times.
int CandidateLen = B[i-j*r].totalLen + j + rNDigits;
if (CandidateLen < B[i].totalLen) {
B[i].lastSegment.elements = in + i - j*r;
B[i].lastSegment.nElements = j;
B[i].lastSegment.count = r;
B[i].prev = &(B[i-j*r]);
B[i].totalLen = CandidateLen;
}
r++;
if (r == rNDigitsBound ) {
rNDigits++;
rNDigitsBound *= 10;
}
} while ( (i - j*r >= 0)
&& (strncmp(in + i -j, in + i - j*r, j)==0));
}
}
char *Res=sequence2string(&(B[N]));
free(B);
return Res;
}
int main(int argc, char** argv) {
char *compressedDNA=dnaCompress(argv[1]);
puts(compressedDNA);
free(compressedDNA);
return 0;
}

Answer 2

Forget Ukonnen. Dynamic programming it is. With 3-dimensional table:
sequence position
subsequence size
number of segments
TERMINOLOGY: For example, having a = "aaagctgctagag", sequence position coordinate would run from 1 to 13. At sequence position 3 (letter 'g'), having subsequence size 4, the subsequence would be "gctg". Understood? And as for the number of segments, then expressing a as "aaagctgctagag1" consists of 1 segment (the sequence itself). Expressing it as "a3gct2ag2" consists of 3 segments. "aaagctgct1ag2" consists of 2 segments. "a2a1ctg2ag2" would consist of 4 segments. Understood? Now, with this, you start filling a 3-dimensional array 13 x 13 x 13, so your time and memory complexity seems to be around n ** 3 for this. Are you sure you can handle it for million-bp sequences? I think that greedy approach would be better, because large DNA sequences are unlikely to repeat exactly. And, I would suggest that you widen your assignment to approximate matches, and you can publish it straight in a journal.
Anyway, you will start filling the table of compressing a subsequence starting at some position (dimension 1) with length equal to dimension 2 coordinate, having at most dimension 3 segments. So you first fill the first row, representing compressions of subsequences of length 1 consisting of at most 1 segment:
a a a g c t g c t a g a g
1(a1) 1(a1) 1(a1) 1(g1) 1(c1) 1(t1) 1(g1) 1(c1) 1(t1) 1(a1) 1(g1) 1(a1) 1(g1)
The number is the character cost (always 1 for these trivial 1-char sequences; number 1 does not count into the character cost), and in the parenthesis, you have the compression (also trivial for this simple case). The second row will be still simple:
2(a2) 2(a2) 2(ag1) 2(gc1) 2(ct1) 2(tg1) 2(gc1) 2(ct1) 2(ta1) 2(ag1) 2(ga1) 2(ag1)
There is only 1 way to decompose a 2-character sequence into 2 subsequences -- 1 character + 1 character. If they are identical, the result is like a + a = a2. If they are different, such as a + g, then, because only 1-segment sequences are admissible, the result cannot be a1g1, but must be ag1. The third row will be finally more interesting:
2(a3) 2(aag1) 3(agc1) 3(gct1) 3(ctg1) 3(tgc1) 3(gct1) 3(cta1) 3(tag1) 3(aga1) 3(gag1)
Here, you can always choose between 2 ways of composing the compressed string. For example, aag can be composed either as aa + g or a + ag. But again, we cannot have 2 segments, as in aa1g1 or a1ag1, so we must be satisfied with aag1, unless both components consist of the same character, as in aa + a => a3, with character cost 2. We can continue onto 4 th line:
4(aaag1) 4(aagc1) 4(agct1) 4(gctg1) 4(ctgc1) 4(tgct1) 4(gcta1) 4(ctag1) 4(taga1) 3(ag2)
Here, on the first position, we cannot use a3g1, because only 1 segment is allowed at this layer. But at the last position, compression to character cost 3 is agchieved by ag1 + ag1 = ag2. This way, one can fill the whole first-level table all the way up to the single subsequence of 13 characters, and each subsequence will have its optimal character cost and its compression under the first-level constraint of at most 1 segment associated with it.
Then you go to the 2nd level, where 2 segments are allowed... And again, from the bottom up, you identify the optimum cost and compression of each table coordinate under the given level's segment count constraint, by comparing all the possible ways to compose the subsequence using already computed positions, until you fill the table completely and thus compute the global optimum. There are some details to solve, but sorry, I'm not gonna code this for you.

Answer 3

After trying my own way for a while, my kudos to jbaylina for his beautiful algorithm and C implementation. Here's my attempted version of jbaylina's algorithm in Haskell, and below it further development of my attempt at a linear-time algorithm that attempts to compress segments that include repeated patterns in a one-by-one fashion:
import Data.Map (fromList, insert, size, (!))
compress s = (foldl f (fromList [(0,([],0)),(1,([s!!0],1))]) [1..n - 1]) ! n
where
n = length s
f b i = insert (size b) bestCandidate b where
add (sequence, sLength) (sequence', sLength') =
(sequence ++ sequence', sLength + sLength')
j' = [1..min 100 i]
bestCandidate = foldr combCandidates (b!i `add` ([s!!i,'1'],2)) j'
combCandidates j candidate' =
let nextCandidate' = comb 2 (b!(i - j + 1)
`add` ((take j . drop (i - j + 1) $ s) ++ "1", j + 1))
in if snd nextCandidate' <= snd candidate'
then nextCandidate'
else candidate' where
comb r candidate
| r > uBound = candidate
| not (strcmp r True) = candidate
| snd nextCandidate <= snd candidate = comb (r + 1) nextCandidate
| otherwise = comb (r + 1) candidate
where
uBound = div (i + 1) j
prev = b!(i - r * j + 1)
nextCandidate = prev `add`
((take j . drop (i - j + 1) $ s) ++ show r, j + length (show r))
strcmp 1 _ = True
strcmp num bool
| (take j . drop (i - num * j + 1) $ s)
== (take j . drop (i - (num - 1) * j + 1) $ s) =
strcmp (num - 1) True
| otherwise = False
Output:
*Main> compress "aaagctgctagag"
("a3gct2ag2",9)
*Main> compress "aaabbbaaabbbaaabbbaaabbb"
("aaabbb4",7)
Linear-time attempt:
import Data.List (sortBy)
group' xxs sAccum (chr, count)
| null xxs = if null chr
then singles
else if count <= 2
then reverse sAccum ++ multiples ++ "1"
else singles ++ if null chr then [] else chr ++ show count
| [x] == chr = group' xs sAccum (chr,count + 1)
| otherwise = if null chr
then group' xs (sAccum) ([x],1)
else if count <= 2
then group' xs (multiples ++ sAccum) ([x],1)
else singles
++ chr ++ show count ++ group' xs [] ([x],1)
where x:xs = xxs
singles = reverse sAccum ++ (if null sAccum then [] else "1")
multiples = concat (replicate count chr)
sequences ws strIndex maxSeqLen = repeated' where
half = if null . drop (2 * maxSeqLen - 1) $ ws
then div (length ws) 2 else maxSeqLen
repeated' = let (sequence,(sequenceStart, sequenceEnd'),notSinglesFlag) = repeated
in (sequence,(sequenceStart, sequenceEnd'))
repeated = foldr divide ([],(strIndex,strIndex),False) [1..half]
equalChunksOf t a = takeWhile(==t) . map (take a) . iterate (drop a)
divide chunkSize b#(sequence,(sequenceStart, sequenceEnd'),notSinglesFlag) =
let t = take (2*chunkSize) ws
t' = take chunkSize t
in if t' == drop chunkSize t
then let ts = equalChunksOf t' chunkSize ws
lenTs = length ts
sequenceEnd = strIndex + lenTs * chunkSize
newEnd = if sequenceEnd > sequenceEnd'
then sequenceEnd else sequenceEnd'
in if chunkSize > 1
then if length (group' (concat (replicate lenTs t')) [] ([],0)) > length (t' ++ show lenTs)
then (((strIndex,sequenceEnd,chunkSize,lenTs),t'):sequence, (sequenceStart,newEnd),True)
else b
else if notSinglesFlag
then b
else (((strIndex,sequenceEnd,chunkSize,lenTs),t'):sequence, (sequenceStart,newEnd),False)
else b
addOne a b
| null (fst b) = a
| null (fst a) = b
| otherwise =
let (((start,end,patLen,lenS),sequence):rest,(sStart,sEnd)) = a
(((start',end',patLen',lenS'),sequence'):rest',(sStart',sEnd')) = b
in if sStart' < sEnd && sEnd < sEnd'
then let c = ((start,end,patLen,lenS),sequence):rest
d = ((start',end',patLen',lenS'),sequence'):rest'
in (c ++ d, (sStart, sEnd'))
else a
segment xs baseIndex maxSeqLen = segment' xs baseIndex baseIndex where
segment' zzs#(z:zs) strIndex farthest
| null zs = initial
| strIndex >= farthest && strIndex > 0 = ([],(0,0))
| otherwise = addOne initial next
where
next#(s',(start',end')) = segment' zs (strIndex + 1) farthest'
farthest' | null s = farthest
| otherwise = if start /= end && end > farthest then end else farthest
initial#(s,(start,end)) = sequences zzs strIndex maxSeqLen
areExclusive ((a,b,_,_),_) ((a',b',_,_),_) = (a' >= b) || (b' <= a)
combs [] r = [r]
combs (x:xs) r
| null r = combs xs (x:r) ++ if null xs then [] else combs xs r
| otherwise = if areExclusive (head r) x
then combs xs (x:r) ++ combs xs r
else if l' > lowerBound
then combs xs (x: reduced : drop 1 r) ++ combs xs r
else combs xs r
where lowerBound = l + 2 * patLen
((l,u,patLen,lenS),s) = head r
((l',u',patLen',lenS'),s') = x
reduce = takeWhile (>=l') . iterate (\x -> x - patLen) $ u
lenReduced = length reduce
reduced = ((l,u - lenReduced * patLen,patLen,lenS - lenReduced),s)
buildString origStr sequences = buildString' origStr sequences 0 (0,"",0)
where
buildString' origStr sequences index accum#(lenC,cStr,lenOrig)
| null sequences = accum
| l /= index =
buildString' (drop l' origStr) sequences l (lenC + l' + 1, cStr ++ take l' origStr ++ "1", lenOrig + l')
| otherwise =
buildString' (drop u' origStr) rest u (lenC + length s', cStr ++ s', lenOrig + u')
where
l' = l - index
u' = u - l
s' = s ++ show lenS
(((l,u,patLen,lenS),s):rest) = sequences
compress [] _ accum = reverse accum ++ (if null accum then [] else "1")
compress zzs#(z:zs) maxSeqLen accum
| null (fst segment') = compress zs maxSeqLen (z:accum)
| (start,end) == (0,2) && not (null accum) = compress zs maxSeqLen (z:accum)
| otherwise =
reverse accum ++ (if null accum || takeWhile' compressedStr 0 /= 0 then [] else "1")
++ compressedStr
++ compress (drop lengthOriginal zzs) maxSeqLen []
where segment'#(s,(start,end)) = segment zzs 0 maxSeqLen
combinations = combs (fst $ segment') []
takeWhile' xxs count
| null xxs = 0
| x == '1' && null (reads (take 1 xs)::[(Int,String)]) = count
| not (null (reads [x]::[(Int,String)])) = 0
| otherwise = takeWhile' xs (count + 1)
where x:xs = xxs
f (lenC,cStr,lenOrig) (lenC',cStr',lenOrig') =
let g = compare ((fromIntegral lenC + if not (null accum) && takeWhile' cStr 0 == 0 then 1 else 0) / fromIntegral lenOrig)
((fromIntegral lenC' + if not (null accum) && takeWhile' cStr' 0 == 0 then 1 else 0) / fromIntegral lenOrig')
in if g == EQ
then compare (takeWhile' cStr' 0) (takeWhile' cStr 0)
else g
(lenCompressed,compressedStr,lengthOriginal) =
head $ sortBy f (map (buildString (take end zzs)) (map reverse combinations))
Output:
*Main> compress "aaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbb" 100 []
"a9b9a9b9"
*Main> compress "aaabbbaaabbbaaabbbaaabbb" 100 []
"aaabbb4"