README.md (1749B)
1 # Hamming 2 3 Calculate the Hamming difference between two DNA strands. 4 5 A mutation is simply a mistake that occurs during the creation or 6 copying of a nucleic acid, in particular DNA. Because nucleic acids are 7 vital to cellular functions, mutations tend to cause a ripple effect 8 throughout the cell. Although mutations are technically mistakes, a very 9 rare mutation may equip the cell with a beneficial attribute. In fact, 10 the macro effects of evolution are attributable by the accumulated 11 result of beneficial microscopic mutations over many generations. 12 13 The simplest and most common type of nucleic acid mutation is a point 14 mutation, which replaces one base with another at a single nucleotide. 15 16 By counting the number of differences between two homologous DNA strands 17 taken from different genomes with a common ancestor, we get a measure of 18 the minimum number of point mutations that could have occurred on the 19 evolutionary path between the two strands. 20 21 This is called the 'Hamming distance'. 22 23 It is found by comparing two DNA strands and counting how many of the 24 nucleotides are different from their equivalent in the other string. 25 26 GAGCCTACTAACGGGAT 27 CATCGTAATGACGGCCT 28 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ 29 30 The Hamming distance between these two DNA strands is 7. 31 32 # Implementation notes 33 34 The Hamming distance is only defined for sequences of equal length. This means 35 that based on the definition, each language could deal with getting sequences 36 of equal length differently. 37 38 ## Source 39 40 The Calculating Point Mutations problem at Rosalind [http://rosalind.info/problems/hamm/](http://rosalind.info/problems/hamm/) 41 42 ## Submitting Incomplete Solutions 43 44 It's possible to submit an incomplete solution so you can see how others have completed the exercise.