Sequence logos: a powerful, yet simple, tool

A powerful technique for analyzing DNA and protein sequences, the sequence logo, is now available to researchers. The authors explain sequence logos, to show their usefulness for biological and linguistic research, and to encourage their use by others. A sequence logo is a graphic representation of the amount of information to be found in a set of DNA, RNA, or protein sequences. This method has advantages over the conventional method of creating a consensus. For example, a logo of DNA shows all the bases found in the binding site of a protein, indicates how much each base is conserved, and depicts the location of the conservation with respect to the major and minor grooves of the DNA.