Counting Point Mutations

30 Dec 2023 in Study / Rosalind on Rosalind problem

A problem from rosalind “Bioinformatics Stronghold” category, String Algorithm

• A problem from rosalind “Bioinformatics Stronghold” category
  Rosalind Problem Link

• Description
  • Given two sequences, we need to calculate the hamming distance
• Input example

GAGCCTACTAACGGGAT
CATCGTAATGACGGCCT

• Output example

7

Biological Background

• Hamming Distance
  • The number of elements that are different in two sequences
• “We are interested in minimizing the number of (point) mutations separating two species because of the biological principle of parsimony, which demands that evolutionary histories should be as simply explained as possible.” - Rosalind (Counting Point Mutations)
• Parsimony Principle : When we make phylogenetic tree of life, we assume evolution will happen in direction to minimum change
  • If there are lots of possible trees, we gonna pick up one that went through minimum mutations
  • Consequently, it is important to count the mutations
  • Parsimony Principle

My Solution

file_name = input()

f = open(file_name, 'r')

seq1 = f.readline()
seq2 = f.readline()

count = 0

for i in range(len(seq1)):
    if seq1[i] != seq2[i]:
        count += 1

print(count)