Engineering in genomics/spl minus/combinatorial methods for DNA physical mapping

To build a physical map biologists use different biochemical techniques to derive indirect information about the map and combinatorial methods to reconstruct the map from these data. Several experimental approaches to DNA physical mapping exist, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. They lead to different combinatorial problems but unfortunately, for most of these problems polynomial algorithms are still unknown; moreover, many of them are NP-complete. To solve some of these problem a number of combinatorial techniques have been suggested, in particular: homometric sets analysis, interval graphs, flows in networks, separation theory and minimum cycles mean in graphs. The author discusses: small-scale mapping; probed partial digestion; progress toward a basic map.<>