A new distance based on minimal absent words and applications to biological sequences

Abstract: A minimal absent word of a sequence x, is a sequence yt hat is not a factorof x, but all of its proper factors are factors of x as well. The set of minimal absent words uniquely defines the sequence itself. In recent times minimal absent words have been used in order to compare sequences. In fact, to do this, one can compare the sets of their minimal absent words. Chairungasee and Crochemorein [2] define a distance between pairs of sequences x and y, where the symmetric difference of the sets of minimal absent words of x and y is involved. Here, weconsider a different distance, introduced in [1], based on a specific subset of such symmetric difference that, in our opinion, better capture the different features ofthe considered sequences. We show the result of some experiments where the distance is tested on a dataset of genetic sequences by 11 living species, in order to compare the new distance with the ones existing in literature.