Author: Russell F. Doolittle
Publisher: University Science Books
ISBN: 9780935702545
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 118
Get Book Here
Book Description
In these days of facile cloning and rapid DNA sequencing, it is not uncommon for investigators to find themselves with a DNA sequence that may or may not code for a known gene product. The sequence is 'open' when read in an appropriate frame, which is to say that there is a long run of amino acid codons before the appearance of a terminator codon. How can we find out if this 'unidentified reading frame' (URF) really codes for a genuine protein, and how can we identify it if it exists? There are two general strategies, both of which can also be applied to the characterization of any 'open reading frame' (ORF), whether or not it has been 'identified'. The first and simplest approach involves computer searching and analysis; the second employs antibodies raised against synthetic peptides patterned on the sequence of the expected gene product. Both methods have been used with great success by many investigators. Each has, nonetheless, its pitfalls and frustrations. This primer is meant to guide the researcher past those obstacles as much as possible. Graduate students and researchers interested in amino acid sequencing; molecular biologists, biochemists, chemists, and biotechnologists.
Author: Andreas Wagner
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400849381
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384
Get Book Here
Book Description
All living things are remarkably complex, yet their DNA is unstable, undergoing countless random mutations over generations. Despite this instability, most animals do not grow two heads or die, plants continue to thrive, and bacteria continue to divide. Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems tackles this perplexing paradox. The book explores why genetic changes do not cause organisms to fail catastrophically and how evolution shapes organisms' robustness. Andreas Wagner looks at this problem from the ground up, starting with the alphabet of DNA, the genetic code, RNA, and protein molecules, moving on to genetic networks and embryonic development, and working his way up to whole organisms. He then develops an evolutionary explanation for robustness. Wagner shows how evolution by natural selection preferentially finds and favors robust solutions to the problems organisms face in surviving and reproducing. Such robustness, he argues, also enhances the potential for future evolutionary innovation. Wagner also argues that robustness has less to do with organisms having plenty of spare parts (the redundancy theory that has been popular) and more to do with the reality that mutations can change organisms in ways that do not substantively affect their fitness. Unparalleled in its field, this book offers the most detailed analysis available of all facets of robustness within organisms. It will appeal not only to biologists but also to engineers interested in the design of robust systems and to social scientists concerned with robustness in human communities and populations.
Author: Teresa K. Attwood
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119243459
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 424
Get Book Here
Book Description
This innovative book provides a completely fresh exploration of bioinformatics, investigating its complex interrelationship with biology and computer science. It approaches bioinformatics from a unique perspective, highlighting interdisciplinary gaps that often trap the unwary. The book considers how the need for biological databases drove the evolution of bioinformatics; it reviews bioinformatics basics (including database formats, data-types and current analysis methods), and examines key topics in computer science (including data-structures, identifiers and algorithms), reflecting on their use and abuse in bioinformatics. Bringing these disciplines together, this book is an essential read for those who wish to better understand the challenges for bioinformatics at the interface of biology and computer science, and how to bridge the gaps. It will be an invaluable resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, and for lecturers, researchers and professionals with an interest in this fascinating, fast-moving discipline and the knotty problems that surround it.
Author: Bruno J. Strasser
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022663518X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 421
Get Book Here
Book Description
Databases have revolutionized nearly every aspect of our lives. Information of all sorts is being collected on a massive scale, from Google to Facebook and well beyond. But as the amount of information in databases explodes, we are forced to reassess our ideas about what knowledge is, how it is produced, to whom it belongs, and who can be credited for producing it. Every scientist working today draws on databases to produce scientific knowledge. Databases have become more common than microscopes, voltmeters, and test tubes, and the increasing amount of data has led to major changes in research practices and profound reflections on the proper professional roles of data producers, collectors, curators, and analysts. Collecting Experiments traces the development and use of data collections, especially in the experimental life sciences, from the early twentieth century to the present. It shows that the current revolution is best understood as the coming together of two older ways of knowing—collecting and experimenting, the museum and the laboratory. Ultimately, Bruno J. Strasser argues that by serving as knowledge repositories, as well as indispensable tools for producing new knowledge, these databases function as digital museums for the twenty-first century.
Author: Xiu-Qing Li
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118647025
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 455
Get Book Here
Book Description
Written by an international team of experts, Somatic Genome Variation presents a timely summary of the latest understanding of somatic genome development and variation in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Wide-ranging in coverage, the authors provide an updated view of somatic genomes and genetic theories while also offering interpretations of somatic genome variation. The text provides geneticists, bioinformaticians, biologist, plant scientists, crop scientists, and microbiologists with a valuable overview of this fascinating field of research.
Author: Charles J. Mode
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814350680
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 695
Get Book Here
Book Description
Prologue; Acknowledgments; Contents; 1. An Introduction to Mathematical Probability with Applications in Mendelian Genetics; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 Mathematical Probability in Mendelian Genetics; 1.3 Examples of Finite Probability Spaces; Example 1.3.1: An Equal Frequency Model; Example 1.3.2: Partitions of an Abstract Set; Example 1.3.3: A Deterministic Case; Example 1.3.4: Inheritance of Eye Color and Sex; 1.4 Elementary Combinatorial Analysis; 1.5 The Binomial Distribution; Example 1.5.1: Distribution of Boys and Girls in Families of Size N.
Author: Bjorn Olsson
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814545600
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Get Book Here
Book Description
This volume contains papers presented at the BCEC97 conference, held in Skövde, Sweden, in September 1997. The conference brought together researchers from biology and computer science to discuss the use of computational techniques in biology, as well as the use of biological metaphors in computing. Examples of the work presented in these papers include computer simulations of embryogenesis; algorithms for protein folding prediction; problem solving using DNA computation; neural-network learning in retina implants; and optimisation algorithms inspired by natural evolution.
Author: Daniel Chasman
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0824748166
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 534
Get Book Here
Book Description
This text offers in-depth perspectives on every aspect of protein structure identification, assessment, characterization, and utilization, for a clear understanding of the diversity of protein shapes, variations in protein function, and structure-based drug design. The authors cover numerous high-throughput technologies as well as computational methods to study protein structures and residues. A valuable reference, this book reflects current trends in the effort to solve new structures arising from genome initiatives, details methods to detect and identify errors in the prediction of protein structural models, and outlines challenges in the conversion of routine processes into high-throughput platforms.
Author:
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0080859321
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 461
Get Book Here
Book Description
This is the third volume in this series covering protein translocation within and between cells. Volumes 31 and 32, Vesicular Transport, Parts A and B, treated techniques for eukaryotic cells available as of 1989. Vectorial Transport of Proteins into and across Membranes, brings together new methods and new topics as of 1991. Highlights include use of anti-idiotype antibodies, gene fusions, transcription, crosslinking, pulse-labeling, and reconstitution. - Describes contemporary approaches for studying protein transport, protein topology and organelle biogenesis - Covers methods from pre-eminent laboratories including: In vitro and in vivo investigations; Biochemical and immunological techniques; Prokaryote, chloroplast, mitochondria, peroxisome, and rough endoplasmic reticulum membranes
Author: Douglas W. Smith
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0080925960
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349
Get Book Here
Book Description
The results of today's genome projects promise enormous medical and agricultural benefits and point to a new predictive approach to the conduct of future research in biology. Biocomputing: Informatics and Genome Projects represents a survey of the needs and objectives of genome projects as of the early 1990's. It provides the groundwork necessary to understand genome-related informatics, including computational and database storage objectives. The book covers four general areas: automated laboratory notebooks, nucleic acid sequence analysis, protein structure, and database activities.
