What does "Super-k-mers" mean?

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Super-k-mers are a method used in bioinformatics to handle sequences of DNA. When scientists analyze DNA, they break it down into smaller parts called k-mers. However, many k-mers can overlap, which can create redundancy in data and make analysis harder.

Super-k-mers aim to reduce this overlap by grouping some k-mers together. This helps to save memory and makes it easier to count and manage the k-mers. By combining overlapping k-mers into these larger structures, scientists can work more efficiently with genomic data.

However, super-k-mers still have a downside. They can overlap by a bit, which means that there might still be unnecessary duplication of information. This leads to inefficiencies in storage and processing.

Overall, super-k-mers are a useful tool for researchers as they try to make sense of large amounts of DNA data while minimizing the waste of resources.