1. What is Genetic Research?

2. Genetic Research Deals with Inherited Traits DNA Isolation Use bioinformatics to Research differences in DNA Genetic researchers study inherited traits by analyzing DNA sequences How are we similar? How are we different?

3. What is bioinformatics? Bioinformatics combines computer science, mathematics, and biology to create methods for capturing, storing, analyzing, visualizing, and sharing biological data. Bioinformatics makes it possible to analyze large and complex biological data and can be used to search biological databases, compare sequences, and draw molecular structures.

4. Bioinformatics tools help scientists organize, process and make sense of complex biological data sets Protein Bioinformatics Tools: DNA Sequencing Identify Mutations in DNA DNA RNA Bioinformatics Tools: RNA Sequencing Identify tissue specific gene expression Bioinformatics Tools: Protein 3D Structure visualization Question: What kinds of scientific questions can we answer with bioinformatics tools?

5. The Practices of Scientific Research Hypothesis and Prediction Gather and Analyze Data Interpretation and Evaluation The Scientist Observations of Nature DNA sequences from tumors contain genetic mutations Genetic differences contribute to the development of cancer Compare genomes from different cancers. Identify variants in genes X and Y. Studies by other scientists demonstrate that genes X and Y are involved in DNA repair, which could explain the increased cancer risk Do families with higher rates of cancer also have higher rates of DNA damage?

6. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool - BLAST Can be used to: – Compare 2 or more DNA sequences to each other – Compare 2 or more protein sequences to each other – Compare a single sequence to many sequences found in databases

7. Pairs of Sequences are Compared to Each Other Papaya: ATGGTGCCG Grape: ATGCTGCCG Papaya : ATGGTGCCG Tomato: ATGCAGCCG Grape : ATGCTGCCG Watermelon: ATGGACACG Tomato : ATGCAGCCG Watermelon: ATGGACACG Papaya: ATGGTGCCG Watermelon: ATGGACACG Grape : ATGGTGCCG Tomato: ATGGTGAAG Number of Nucleotide Differences: PapayaGrape TomatoWatermelon Papaya0123 Grape1024 Tomato2203 Watermelon3430