Textual data compression in computational biology: A synopsis

Abstract

Motivation: Textual data compression, and the associated techniques coming from information theory, are often perceived as being of interest for data communication and storage. However, they are also deeply related to classification and data mining and analysis. In recent years, a substantial effort has been made for the application of textual data compression techniques to various computational biology tasks, ranging from storage and indexing of large datasets to comparison and reverse engineering of biological networks. Results: The main focus of this review is on a systematic presentation of the key areas of bioinformatics and computational biology where compression has been used. When possible, a unifying organization of the main ideas and techniques is also provided. © The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.