Computer selection of oligonucleotide probes from amino acid sequences for use in gene library screening

We present a computer program, FINPROBE, which utilizes known amino acid sequence data to deduce minimum redundancy oligonucleotide probes for use in screening cDNA or genomic libraries or in primer extension. The user enters the amino acid sequence of interest, the desired probe length, the number of probes sought, and the constraints on oligonucleotide synthesis. The computer generates a table of possible probes listed in increasing order of redundancy and provides the location of each probe in the protein and mRNA coding sequence. Activation of a next function provides the amino acid and mRNA sequences of each probe of interest as well as the complementary sequence and the minimum dissociation temperature of the probe. A final routine prints out the amino acid sequence of the protein in parallel with the mRNA sequence listing all possible codons for each amino acid.