On sorting by translocations

Abstract. The study of genome rearrangements is an important tool in comparative genomics. This paper revisits the problem of sorting a multichromosomal genome by translocations, i.e. exchanges of chromosome ends. We give an elementary proof of the formula for computing the translocation distance in linear time, and we give a new algorithm for sorting by translocations, correcting an error in a previous algorithm by Hannenhalli.