Efficient drawing of RNA secondary structure

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new layout algorithm that draws the secondary structure of a Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) automatically according to some of the biologists’ aesthetic criteria. Such layout insures that two equivalent structures (or sub-structures) are drawn in a same and planar way. In order to allow a visual comparison of two RNAs, we use an heuristic that places the biggest similar part of the two structures in the same position and orientation.