Lecture 1 - RH Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Lecture 1 - RH Deck (20)
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1
Q

What is bioinformatics?

A

Bioinformatics is the analysis and conceptualisation of complex biological information and this is done mostly via computers.

2
Q

What are the 3 areas of bioinformatics?

A

1 - Databases (Store and manage large datasets)

2 - Algorithms (Determine relationship between members of dataset)

3 - Analysis tools

3
Q

Why are computers necessary in bioinformatics?

A

Volume of data is large

Many tasks are highly repetitive

4
Q

Why is there so much data in databases nowadays?

A

Lots of improved sequencing methods and genome projects as well as the therapeutic potential that was realised.

5
Q

What were the first organisms to be sequenced?

A

1995 - Bacteria

1997 - Yeast

1998 - Worm

2004 - Human

6
Q

What can be done with genetic information?

A

Genes can be found and used to predict protein sequences

Relationships can be analysed between genes

Analyse evolutionary relationships

Predict the proteome of an organism

7
Q

What is the ultimate goal of bioinformatics?

A

To predict structure of a protein from the primary sequence. This is not yet possible

8
Q

How can protein domains and motifs be predicted?

A

Using the sequence

9
Q

How is the protein structure solved?

A

Crystallography

10
Q

How can related structures be modelled?

A

Comparison to solved structures

11
Q

How are ligands assessed?

A

In silico

12
Q

What does in silico mean?

A

conducted or produced by means of computer modeling or computer simulation.

13
Q

How are databases updated? How is this different to the past?

A

In the past a CD-ROM was sent to institutions to update nucleic acid databases. This has changed now to the use of the internet.

14
Q

What are some nucleotide databases to be considered?

A

NCBI

DDBJ (Japan)

EMBL

15
Q

What are some protein databases to be considered?

A

SwissProt

PDD (3D structure)

16
Q

What is the ENTREZ browser?

A

A browser used to interrogate text. It can be used to find both literature and sequences

17
Q

Where do protein sequences in databases come from?

A

Most sequences in protein databases are derived from nucleotide sequences

18
Q

How are open reading frames located?

A

Using an ORF finder

19
Q

What does BLAST stand for?

A

Basic Local Alignment Search Tool

20
Q

What is the type of tool used to find restriction enzyme cutting locations?

A

A cutter tool