The many faces of sequence alignment

Starting with the sequencing of the mouse genome in 2002, we have entered a period where the main focus of genomics will be to compare multiple genomes in order to learn about human biology and evolution at the DNA level. Alignment methods are the main computational component of this endeavour. This short review aims to summarise the current status of research in alignments, emphasising large-scale genomic comparisons and suggesting possible directions that will be explored in the near future.