Bio Informatics

Bioinformatics is the recently developed science using information to understand biological phenomenon. It broadly involves computational tools and methods used to manage, analyse and manipulate volumes of biological data.

It is also regarded as a part of the computational biology. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary approach requiring advanced knowledge of computer science, mathematics and statistical methods for the understanding of biological phenomena at the molecular level.

History

The term bioinformatics was first introduced in 1990s. Originally, it dealt with the management and analysis of the data pertaining to DNA, RNA and Protein sequences. As the biological data is being produced at an unprecedented rate, its management and interpretation invariably requires bioinformatics. Thus, Bioinformatics now includes many other types of biological data.

Some of the important ones are listed below

• Gene expression profiles
• Protein structure
• Protein interactions
• Micro arrays (DNA chips)
• Functional analysis of Biomolecules
• Drug designing

Bioinformatics is largely (not exclusively) a computer based discipline. Computers are in fact very essential to handle large volumes of biological data, their storage and retrieval.

Broad coverage of Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics covers many specialized and advanced areas of biology.

• Functional genomics : Identification of genes and their respective functions
• Structural genomics : Predictions related to functions of proteins
• Comparative genomics : For understanding the genomes of different species of organisms.
• DNA Microarrays : These are designed to measure the levels of gene expression in different tissues, various stages of development and in different diseases.
• Medical Informatics : This involves the management of biomedical data with special reference to biomolecules, invitro assays and clinical trials. 

Components of Bioinformatics

1. Creation of Databases
2. Development of Algorithm and statistics
3. Analysis of data and interpretation

 

Biological Databases

The collection of  biological data on a computer which can be manipulated to appear in varying arrangements and subsets is regarded as a database.

The biological information can be stored in different databases. Each database has its own website with navigation tools.

The biological databases are in general publicly accessible. Here are some examples of biological databases,

Nucleotide sequence databases

The nucleotide sequence data submitted by the scientists and genome sequencing groups is at the databases namely GenBank , EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory) and DDBJ ( DNA Data Bank of Japan). There is a good coordination between these three databases as they are synchronized on daily basis.

Besides these, there are some other databases also to provide information on genes, genomes and ongoing research projects.

Protein sequence database

It is usually prepared from the existing literature and /or in consultation with the experts. In fact, these databases represent the translated databases.

Molecular structural databases

The three dimensional (3-D) structures of macromolecules are determines by X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) . PDB and SCOP are the primary databases of 3-D structures of biological molecules.

Other databases

KEGG database is an important one that provides information on the current knowledge of molecular biology and cell biology with special reference to information on metabolic pathways, interacting molecules and genes.

APPLICATIONS OF BIOINFORMATICS

Bioinformatics has revolutionized the advancements in biological science. And biotechnology is largely benefited by bioinformatics. The best example is the sequencing of human genome in a record time which would not have been possible without bioinformatics.

selected applications of bioinfromatics 

• Sequence mapping of biomolecules ( DNA, RNA, proteins)
• Identification of nucleotide sequences of functional genes.
• Finding of sites that can be cut by restriction enzymes.
• Designing of primer sequence for polymerase chain reaction.
• Prediction of functional gene products.
• To trace the evolutionary trees of genes.
• For the prediction of 3-D structure of proteins.
• Molecular modelling of Biomolecules.
• Designing of drugs for medical treatment.
• Handling of vast biological data which otherwise is not possible.
• Development of models for the functioning of various cells, tissues and organs. 

At present there is no field in biological sciences that does not involve bioinformatics.

Primary nucleotide sequence databases

GenBank

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/

EMBL

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ 

Other nucleotide sequence databases

UniGene

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/unigene 

Genome Biology

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome 

EBI Genomes

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/genomes/

Protein sequence databases

SWISS- PROT (https://www.expasy.org/)

PIR ( http://pir.georgetown.edu/)

Protein sequences motif databases

PROSITE ( https://prosite.expasy.org/)

Pfam ( http://pfam.xfam.org/)

Macromolecular databases

PDB (http://www.rcsb.org/)

SCOP (http://scop.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/scop/)

Other databases

KEGG ( http://www.genome.jp/kegg/pathway.html)