ABSTRACT
Constraints: restrictions of the possible values taken by a parameter, such as a distance, an angle, or a solid angle
Data bank/database: collection of information stored in a systematic way that can be accessed electronically and searched by various parameters
DNA (RNA) polymerase: enzyme responsible for catalyzing the synthesis of a new molecule of DNA (RNA) using a pre-existing template filament
Electrophoresis: a technique that allows the separation of charged compounds in an electric field
Entry: element of a database EST: expressed sequence tags; DNA sequence obtained from the (partial)
sequencing of a cDNA molecule Hybridization: the process by which two complementary single-strand oligo-
nucleotides associate Nitrogenous bases: nitrogenous compounds (purines or pyrimidines) found in
nucleosides, nucleotides, and nucleic acids NMR: nuclear magnetic resonance; a technique that uses the interactions of
nuclei with an external magnetic field to reconstruct their position in space, hence the structure of the molecule
Primer: RNA or DNA fragment complementary to a portion of the DNA region to be synthesized by the DNA polymerase
Ramachandran plot: plot that shows the theoretically allowed or experimentally observed combinations of φ and ψ angles in a polypeptide chain
Resolution, R factor, Rfree factor: parameters to evaluate the accuracy of the reconstruction of a macromolecular structure starting from x-ray diffraction data
Sequence pattern: a pattern of amino acids deemed to have a functional significance
SNP: single nucleotide polymorphism; naturally occurring variants that affect a single nucleotide (A, T, C, or G) in a genome
X-ray crystallography: technique that uses x-ray diffraction for the reconstruction of the three-dimensional positions of atoms inside molecular crystals
Bioinformatics is a relatively young discipline that deals with the storage, retrieval, and analysis of biological data with informatics tools. Many branches of science use computers, databases, and algorithms, from weather forecasts to economics, from physics to linguistics. Each of them treats the data in different ways dictated by the nature of the data. From this perspective, we could define bioinformatics as the science that analyzes biological data with computer tools in order to formulate hypotheses on the processes underlying life.
