Figure 1

Open-Phylo crowd-computing system. (1) Scientists upload their sequences to the database, validate the alignment puzzles built by the system (See green box in the data administration interface), or select new ones. (2) The same users monitor the progress of the crowd in improving their alignments, close puzzles, open new puzzles and finally (3) download the best solutions. The crowd-computing engine is powered by (a) many casual gamers playing classic puzzles and (b) a smaller number of experienced players, who have access to larger and more difficult puzzles.