RNAknot: A new algorithm for RNA secondary structure prediction based on genetic algorithm and GRASP method

The prediction of the optimal secondary structure for a given RNA sequence represents a challenging computational problem in bioinformatics. This challenge becomes harder especially with the discovery of different pseudoknot classes, which is a complex topology that plays diverse roles in biological processes. Many recent studies have been proposed to predict RNA secondary structure with some pseudoknot classes, but only a few of them have reached satisfying results in terms of both complexity and accuracy. Here we present RNAknot, a new method for predicting RNA secondary structure that contains the following components: stems, hairpin loops, multi-branched loops or multi-loops, bulge loops, and internal loops, in addition to two types of pseudoknots, H-type pseudoknot and Hairpin kissing. RNAknot is based on a genetic algorithm and Greedy Randomized Adaptive Search Procedure (GRASP), and it uses the free energy as fitness function to evaluate the obtained structures. In order to validate the performance of the presented method 131 tests have been performed using two datasets of 26 and 105 RNA sequences, which have been taken from the two data bases RNAstrand and Pseudobase respectively. The obtained results are compared with those of some RNA secondary structure prediction programs such as Vs_subopt, CyloFold, IPknot, Kinefold, RNAstructure, and Sfold. The results of this comparative study show that the prediction accuracy of our proposed approach is significantly improved compared to those obtained by the other programs. For the first dataset, RNAknot has the highest specificity (SP) (71.23%) and sensitivity (SN) (72.15%) averages compared to the other programs. Concerning the second dataset, the RNA secondary structure predictions obtained by the RNAknot correspond to the highest averages of SP (85.49%) and F-measure (79.97%) compared to the other programs. The program is available as a jar file in the link: www.bachmek.umi.ac.ma/wp-content/uploads/RNAknot .0.0 .2. rar.