Hidden Markov model with duration side information for novel HMMD derivation, with application to eukaryotic gene finding

Abstract

We describe a new method to introduce duration into an HMM using side information that can be put in the form of a martingale series. Our method makes use of ratios of duration cumulant probabilities in a manner that meshes with the column-level dynamic programming construction. Other information that could be incorporated, via ratios of sequence matches, includes an EST and homology information. A familiar occurrence of a martingale in HMM-based efforts is the sequence-likelihood ratio classification. Our method suggests a general procedure for piggybacking other side information as ratios of side information probabilities, in association (e.g., one-to-one) with the duration-probability ratios. Using our method, the HMM can be fully informed by the side information available during its dynamic table optimizationin Viterbi path calculations in particular. © 2010 S. Winters-Hilt et al.