BSC 315 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Dna Replication, Genome Size, Microrna

• School: University of Alabama
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BSC 315
• Professor: Edwin Stephenson

Document Summary

Bioinformatics: application of computational methods to large biological databases. Examples: find orfs and match cdna to genome sequences, assemble short dna sequence reads into complete genome sequences, dna sequence storage and retrieval, gene annotation, search for genes similar to a reference gene (blast search; Blast = basic local alignment search tool: compare gene and genome organization between organisms. Discrepancy between gene number and genome size: large genomes have larger genes (more and longer introns), and larger spaces between genes. Spacer dna = dna between genes without coding function. Functions: regulates gene expression (enhancers and insulators, mirna and sirna genes, other unknown functions, no real function: parasitic dna = viral genomes / mobile genetic elements. Blast is used to search genomes for dna sequences similar to a sequence of interest. Input is a query sequence of dna or protein: protein queries are usually more powerful: algorithm virtually translates subject sequence to look for match.