Bioinformatics. Flashcards
Define the DNA reading frame?
Each strand of DNA has 3 possible open reading frames where the strand is read in codons.
How many reading frames does a DNA molecule have?
6.
Define genome annotation?
The process of obtaining biological information from unprocessed, sequenced genetic data.
Define the MASCOT search engine?
A bioinformatic database.
What is bioinformatics?
The process of solving biological problems by utilising information stored on computer databases.
What is used in bioinformatics to increase biological understanding?
Biological databases.
Who coined the term bioinformatics in 1979?
Paulien Hogeweg.
How has bioinformatics helped the field of medicine?
By allowing us to compare biological processes in healthy and diseased bodies.
How is the information in bioinformatic databases used to help advance medicine?
The information has been collected from past patients and can be used to diagnose the same disease in others.
What kind of maps has the information from bioinformatic databases helped to create?
Genetic maps that show heritable traits.
How can bioinformatic databases help taxonomists classify species?
They can store the genome sequences of different organisms.
This allows for comparisons to be made between different organisms.
How has bioinformatics helped law enforcement companies?
Police forces use databases to store DNA profiles of convicted offenders making it easier to catch repeat offenders.
How can bioinformatics help molecular biologists conduct their experiments?
Primers designs are stored in databases. This allows scientists to easily build a primer.
How has bioinformatics helped pharmacologists?
They can use bioinformatics to design new drugs that are personalised for a persons genome.
How has bioinformatics helped farmers?
It has helped farmers develop new strains of crops which are disease or pest resistant.
From what biological sources will bioinformatics use data?
DNA.
RNA.
Protein.
How can bioinformatics help scientists sequence DNA strands?
By storing the information from past DNA experiments, this allows scientists to compare sequences.
How has bioinformatics helped with the study of proteins?
The storing of information related proteins allows other researchers to identify the same protein quickly.
What does the storage of information relating to proteins allow scientists to study about how proteins are changing?
It allows them to study evolution of proteins and also the mutations that can arise within their structure.
What are 5 ways that bioinformatics can help to study DNA?
Analysis of a DNA sequence.
The discovery of new genes.
The discovery of regulatory regions within the DNA strand.
The ability to annotate whole genomes.
To carry out comparative genomics.
The storage of DNA sequences in bioinformatic databses allows scientists to make what comparisons?
It allows scientists to compare genome sequences between different people.
What does the comparison of DNA sequences from different people allow for?
The detection of areas in the genome that code for genetic diseases such as sickle cell.
How does the study of different DNA strands help pharmacologists?
It allows them to develop new drugs that are likely to be absorbed and metabolised by the patient.
How does the storage of different genomes help us to study the physical genome?
It helps us find new genes or regulatory regions such as a TATA box or a binding domain for a regulatory protein.
What are 6 factors about RNA that bioinformatics can help study?
The different products of RNA splicing.
The expression of different RNA’s in different tissues.
The structure of different RNA’s.
The types of RNA that are produced by a single gene.
The RNA’s that are produced by thousands of genes at the same time.
The creation of specific DNA chips and microarrays for RNA analysis.
Why is it important to store the information that relates to the products of RNA splicing?
To know all of the products that can be produced by a single gene.
To know which RNAs are produced in response to an external stimulus.
To build genetic probes and microarrays.
What are 6 factors about proteins that bioinformatics can help with?
The identification of protein families.
The identification of various protein domains and regions.
The identification of various protein structures.
The identification of various protein functions.
How is bioinformatics used in the identifcation of proteins?
The results from electrophoresis and mass spectrometry are fed into a database for protein identification.
What are the 2 categories if bioinformatic databanks that store information relating to DNA, RNA and proteins
Databases that store information relating to nucleic acids.
Databases that store information relating to proteins.
What is GenBank?
The NIH genetic sequence database and is part of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC).
What 3 databanks help to make up the INSDC?
The DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ).
The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
The GenBank at NCBI in the USA.
What does the INSDC allow researcher to do?
To identify a particular nucleotide sequence by searching through millions of different nucleotides.
In what format is genetic information at the NCBI stored?
In a format that displays information about the nucleic acid such as function etc.
What is Uni-prot?
A database that combines all of the information from major international databases.
What 5 major databnaks does Uni-prot obtain information from?
European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI).
Protein Information Resource (PIR).
Georgetown University Medical Centre (GUMC).
National Biomedical Research Foundation (NBRF).
The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB).
What is ExPasy?
A tool from the SIB and it provides access to databases and software tools that cover all areas of life sciences.
What does ExPasy stand for?
The expert Protein Analysis System.
What is a query sequence?
A particular sequence that is chosen by the experimenter and instead into a BLAST search.
What can a query sequence be made up of?
Of amino acids or nucleotides.
When is a BLAST search performed?
When a researcher wants to discover more information that relates to their query sequence.
BLAST searches require query sequences to be of what length?
At least 15 nucleotides or amino acids.
How do scientists perform a BLAST search?
They insert the query sequence into a database.
This allows them to compare their sequence to all of the known sequences within the database.