In automatically designing a base sequence to be used as a probe which is
hybridized with an unknown nucleic acid fragment to perform gene
analysis, a discrimination tree in which a plurality of partial base
sequences obtained from target base sequence data are arranged on nodes
is generated. The suitability as a probe of a partial base sequence
represented by a desired node is evaluated. A plurality of partial base
sequences are grouped on the basis of specificity, and an appropriate
group combination is selected. A partial base sequence to be used as a
probe is determined, from partial base sequences belonging to the
selected groups, on the basis of the evaluation result. In this manner, a
probe appropriate for analysis can be automatically selected in
accordance with a target base sequence to be analyzed. This effectively
supports probe designing.