Asymmetric exclusion process and extremal statistics of random sequences

TL;DR

This paper establishes an exact mapping between sequence alignment in computational biology and the asymmetric exclusion process in physics, using the latter to analyze the statistical significance of alignments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel connection between biological sequence analysis and nonequilibrium physics models, enabling exact solutions for alignment significance.

Findings

Mapping between sequence alignment and asymmetric exclusion process

Characterization of alignment significance via hopping current

Exact solutions for statistical significance in sequence analysis

Abstract

An exact mapping is established between sequence alignment, one of the most commonly used tools of computational biology, and the asymmetric exclusion process, one of the few exactly solvable models of nonequilibrium physics. The statistical significance of sequence alignments is characterized through studying the total hopping current of the discrete time and space version of the asymmetric exclusion process.