Aligning Multiple Sequences

Watch three sequences be aligned.

The animation shows three short sequences, one above the other, slide past each other. Whenever the same nucleotides are found in the same position in all three sequences they flash, indicating a match. The sequences continue to slide past one another until the greatest number of nucleotides match. Dashes are added to positions without a corresponding nucleotide to optimally align the sequences.

You can align more than two sequences. You might want to compare many sequences if you are trying to determine evolutionary relationships among many organisms.