Life Science Dictionary15 terms

Bioinformatics Terms

Bioinformatics uses computers to store, search and compare biological data, above all DNA, RNA and protein sequences. These terms cover databases such as GenBank, sequence formats and alignment algorithms, BLAST searches, genome annotation and systems biology.

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BioinformaticsBioinformaticsBioinformatics is the science of using computers to gather, store, analyze and share biological data, especially DNA, RNA and protein sequences.
BLASTBioinformaticsBLAST is a widely used program that searches databases for DNA or protein sequences similar to a query and ranks the matches by statistical significance.

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FASTA formatBioinformaticsFASTA format is a plain-text format for DNA, RNA or protein sequences in which each record starts with a header line beginning with > followed by the sequence.

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Multiple sequence alignmentBioinformaticsA multiple sequence alignment lines up three or more DNA, RNA or protein sequences so that positions sharing an evolutionary origin fall in one column.

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Phylogenetic treeEvolutionA phylogenetic tree is a branching diagram that shows the evolutionary relationships among organisms or genes as a hypothesis of shared descent.

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RNA sequencingGenomicsRNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a method that uses high-throughput sequencing to identify and count the RNA molecules in a sample.

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TranscriptomeGenomicsThe transcriptome is the full set of RNA molecules made in a cell, tissue or organism at a given time, showing which genes are active.

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