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I'm not looking for a specific answer to a question (below). I think it is likely that the 'kind' of problem I have has been studied (and has a name ;). But I don't know what that might be. So I'm mostly looking for a name or a pointer in the direction that may help me:

Imagine I have the gene sequence (for some gene) from a particular person. I want to find a 'plausible" sequence for each of that person's parents. That is, a sequence that the parent could have in order for the child to have the sequence she has. (Not the sequence of the parent. But one that is plausibly correct, given then constrain of the child's sequence). This should be borderline-trivial.

Now imagine I also have the sequence for the same gene for one of the parent's siblings. (Say, an uncle of the original person). That should give me more information -- and constrain the 'plausible' solutions.

I might be able to add to my knowledge the sequence from other, related people. As I do, I should continue to constrain the plausible values for the parent's genes. This may (?) make it harder to come up with a plausible sequence.

TimG
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  • Welcome to Math.SE. Thank you for your question. It would be helpful for us if you could give more detail about your understanding of the problem. – vadim123 Apr 28 '13 at 15:01

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Each person has two copies of each gene. If you have sequenced one of these, the sequence is identical to (one copy of the gene in ) one parent, you can say nothing about the other parent, and you don't know which one. This presumes there was no mutation in the gene in this generation. The other copy in the person you sequenced the gene from came from the other parent, and (barring mutation) is identical to (one copy of the gene in) that parent.

Ross Millikan
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