Background Information!
Bioinformatics is a new fi eld of biotechnology that is involved in the storage and manipulation of DNA sequence information from which one can obtain useful biological information. Although DNA sequencing has existed since the early 1970's, it has not been until the 1990's that the whole process has been automated. In particular, automated DNA sequencers rapidly and effi ciently analyze the reactions in a one-lane sequencing process that uses four-dye fl uorescent labeling methods and a real-time scanning detector. These machines automatically separate the labeled DNA molecules of varying sizes by gel electrophoresis and also "call" the bases and record the data. In contrast to running and reading the DNA sequencing gels manually, these automated sequencers can provide much more information (up to several thousands of base pairs) per gel run.
Data from DNA sequencing is of limited use unless it can be converted to biologically useful information. Bioinformatics therefore is a critical component of DNA sequencing . It evolved from the merging of computer technology and biotechnology. The widespread use of the internet has made it possible to easily retrieve information from the various genome projects. In a typical analysis, as a fi rst step, after obtaining DNA sequencing data a molecular biologist will search for DNA sequence similarities using various data banks on the internet.
These exercises will involve using BLASTN, whereby a nucleotide sequence will be compared to other sequences in the nucleotide database. BLASTP will also be used to compare the amino acid sequence of a protein with other protein sequences in the databank.
Data from DNA sequencing is of limited use unless it can be converted to biologically useful information. Bioinformatics therefore is a critical component of DNA sequencing . It evolved from the merging of computer technology and biotechnology. The widespread use of the internet has made it possible to easily retrieve information from the various genome projects. In a typical analysis, as a fi rst step, after obtaining DNA sequencing data a molecular biologist will search for DNA sequence similarities using various data banks on the internet.
These exercises will involve using BLASTN, whereby a nucleotide sequence will be compared to other sequences in the nucleotide database. BLASTP will also be used to compare the amino acid sequence of a protein with other protein sequences in the databank.