De Bruijn graph

De Bruijn graph is a type of graph that helps scientists and researchers understand the structure of DNA or RNA molecules, which are the building blocks of life.

Imagine you have a bunch of Legos with different shapes and colors, and you want to know how they fit together to make a bigger structure.

First, you group the Legos by shape and color. Then, you link them together according to their shape, like a puzzle. This is similar to how the De Bruijn graph works.

In bioinformatics, scientists take DNA fragments from a sample and break them down into smaller pieces called k-mers. These k-mers are like the Legos, and they can be linked together to create a bigger picture of the DNA.

The De Bruijn graph takes these k-mers and groups them together by their overlapping parts, or edges. Basically, it looks at the pieces of DNA that overlap and connects them in a graph.

For example, let's say you have two k-mers: ACGTAG and CGTAGC. These k-mers have an overlapping sequence of "CGTAG" so they are connected in the De Bruijn graph.

By creating this graph, scientists can better understand the structure of DNA or RNA molecules, which is helpful for things like gene editing and disease research.