Question

Three scores, Pnum (i), Hnum (i,j), and Ssum, have been derived to assist with a determination of the reliability of a secondary structure prediction for a particular base i or a base pair i,j. Which of the following is not a correct regarding Ssum?

(a) is also called as ss-count

(b) is the number of foldings in which base i is single-stranded divided by m, the number of folding

(c) is the number of foldings in which base i is single-stranded multiplied by m, the number of folding

(d) gives the probability that base i is single-stranded

The question was asked in an online interview.

I'd like to ask this question from MFOLD and the Use of Energy Plots topic in section RNA Structure Prediction of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

Right choice is (c) is the number of foldings in which base i is single-stranded multiplied by m, the number of folding

For explanation I would say: If Snum is approximately 1, then base i is probably in a single-stranded region, and if Snum is approximately 0, then base i is probably not in such a region. This reliability information has been used to annotate output files of MFOLD and other RNA display programs.