So-called string problems are abundant in bioinformatics and computational biology. New optimization problems dealing with DNA or protein sequences are constantly arising and researchers are highly in need of efficient optimization techniques for solving them.

One obstacle for optimization practitioners is the atypical nature of these problems which require an interdisciplinary approach in order to solve them efficiently and accurately.

This book explains the most prominent and some promising new, general techniques that combine metaheuristics with other optimization methods. A first introductory chapter reviews the basic principles of local search, prominent metaheuristics, and tree search, dynamic programming, mixed integer linear programming, and constraint programming for combinatorial optimization purposes. The chapters that follow present five generally applicable hybridization strategies, with exemplary case studies on selected problems: incomplete solution representations and decoders; problem instance reduction;...