Comparing sequences without using alignments: application to HIV/SIV subtyping

The extensive tests on HIV/SIV subtyping showed that the virus classifications produced by our method are in good agreement with our best taxonomic knowledge, even in non-coding LTR (Long Terminal Repeat) regions that are not tractable by regular alignment methods due to frequent duplications/insertions/deletions. Our method, however, is not limited to the HIV/SIV subtyping. It provides an alternative tree construction without a time-consuming aligning procedure.