Needleman–wunsch algorithm using multi-threading approach

Abstract

Needleman–Wunsch algorithm (NWA) is one of the most popular algorithms in the area of bioinformatics to perform pair-wise sequence alignment. It uses dynamic programming to calculate the overall alignment score of two biological sequences. Using multithreading, this algorithm can be parallelized to achieve higher efficiency in terms of speed without compromising on the overall accuracy of the alignment. Multithreading can be implemented in multiple ways on the Needleman–Wunsch algorithm, each of which having different efficiencies in terms of speed and accuracy. The optimal number of threads for varying sequence lengths can also be identified using the results of the experiments performed.