For many reasons multiple species DNA alignment is a hard problem. One reason it is hard is because as evolutionary relationship between organisms increase, the similarities in their DNA sequence decrease. Many times we encounter gaps and duplications that make accurate alignment very difficult.
Computer algorithms are getting better (compare CLUSTAL-W to Clustal Omega), it is still pretty darn difficult to accurately align multiple species. A lot of time and effort is needed to manually inspect alignments performed even by the best multiple species aligner. A handful of scientists can only take it so far…so, crowdsourcing helps here.
One can use an algorithm to perform multiple species alignments of multiple genomes. These alignments can then be made publicly available to public such that they can, in their leisure, improve them by manually intervention. Recently, I came across PHYLO which is a GAME, yes a GAME!!!! in which multiple species alignments of human genome that are potentially linked to various genetic disorders, such as breast cancer can be manually curated by the public. “Every alignment is received, analyzed, and stored in a database, where it will eventually be re-introduced back into the global alignment as an optimization.”
This is a wonderful opportunity for the public to learn a little about bioinformatics and to understand about evolution. So folks, substitute your AngryBirds with Phylo and help yourself increase your chances of living longer by helping the scientific community move closer towards finding ‘cures’ for these diseases.
Mentavolution 