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Greedy Algorithms for Finding a Small Set of Primers Satisfying Cover and Length Resolution Conditions in PCR Experiments.

Selecting a good collection of primers is very important for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) experiments. Most existing algorithms for primer selection are concerned with computing a primer pair for each DNA sequence. In generalizing the arbitrarily primed PCR, etc., to the case that all DNA sequences of target objects are already known, like about 6000 ORFs of yeast, we may design a small set of primers so that all the targets are PCR amplified and resolved electrophoretically in a series of experiments. This is quite useful because deceasing the number of primers greatly reduces the cost of experiments. Pearson et al. (ISMB 1995: 285-291, 1995; Discrete Appl. Math. 71: 231-246, 1996) consider finding a minimum set of primers covering all given DNA sequences, but their method does not meet necessary biological conditions such as primer amplification and electrophoresis resolution. In this paper, based on the modeling and computational complexity analysis by Doi, we propose algorithms for this primer selection problem. These algorithms do not necessarily minimize the number of primers, but, since basic versions of these problems are shown to be computationally intractable, especially even for approximability with the length resolution condition, this is inevitable. In the algorithms, the amplification condition by a primer pair and the length resolution condition by electrophoresis are incorporated. These algorithms are based on the theoretically well-founded greedy algorithm for the set cover in computer science. Preliminary computational results are presented to show the validity of this approach. The number of computed primers is much less than a half of the number of targets, and hence is less than one forth of the number needed in the multiplex PCR.