Probe designing method and information processing apparatus

An information processing apparatus for performing the method of determining a probe candidate that is utilized for designing a base sequence to be used as a probe which is hybridized with a nucleic acid fragment to perform analysis, said apparatus comprising:

• generation means for generating a tree in which a plurality of partial base sequences obtained on the basis of a plurality of target base sequences are arranged on nodes, said target base sequences including a base sequence to be examined;
• extraction means for extracting a partial base sequence indicated by nodes present on a path from one of the nodes to a root node on the tree, the partial base sequence being a portion of the base sequence to be examined;
• evaluation means for calculating specificity of the extracted partial base sequence among the plurality of target sequences, evaluating suitability as a probe of the extracted base sequence based on the calculated specificity and obtaining an evaluation result thereof;
• determination means for determining a partial base sequence as a probe candidate that is utilized for designing a base sequence to be used as a probe which is hybridized with a nucleic acid fragment to perform analysis on the basis of the evaluation result in said evaluation means;
• and
• wherein said evaluation means calculates the entropy of each node present on the path as the specificity on the basis of the number of times of appearance of a partial base sequence corresponding to the node in the target base sequences, introduces an evaluation function which multiplies a change in the entropy between nodes by a weight which reduces in response to the increase of distance between the center of a partial base sequence and a node, and obtains an evaluation result based on a calculation result of the evaluation function.