Biological Databases and Retrieval Systems

In recent years, biological databases have greatly developed, and became a part of the biologist's everyday toolbox (see eg. [7]). There are several reasons to search databases, for instance :

1.

When obtaining a new DNA sequence, one needs to know whether it has already been deposited in the databanks, or whether they contain any homologous sequences (sequences which are derived from a common ancestry) exist there.

2.

Given a putative coding ORF, we can search for Homologous proteins - proteins similar in their folding or structure of function).

3.

To find similar non-coding DNA stretches in the database : Repeat elements or regulatory sequences for instance.

4.

There are other uses for specific purpose, like locating false priming sites for a set of PCR oligonucleotides.