Since DNA frequently undergoes insertions, deletions, substitutions, and transpositions, and each of these operations occurs on approximately the same timescale, the Damerau–Levenshtein distance is an appropriate metric of the variation between two strands of DNA.
Pošto DNK često prolazi umetanja, brisanja, zamene i transpozicije, i svaka od ovih operacija se javlja na približno istom vremenskom roku, Damerau-Levenshtein rastojanje je odgovarajuća metrika varijacija između dve niti DNK.