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From a Biological Point of View, the Following Points Are

Generally Important

1. Bioinformatics analyzes biological systems. However, these all behave similarly in

principle. What are the principles? How and with which software do I get the system

behavior out? It is very important that a biological system adapts to the environment as

optimally as possible and actively controls itself. These capabilities do not reside in

individual components, but only emerge through the interaction of all parts (emer­

gence). Pioneers of systems biology have summarized these principles (Chap. 9).

2. Every living being today is the result of millions of years of evolution of the population

that produced it. Therefore, a good bioinformatics strategy is also to look at the evolu­

tion of a protein sequence, a protein structure, an organism. We will learn basic tech­

niques for this (Chap. 10).

3. Finally, we can also look at the concrete implementation of design principles in a cell

to efficiently address bioinformatics problems, i.e., in particular, to understand which

molecular component we are looking at and how it acts in the cell. For this, we look at

the flow of genetic information from genome to RNA to protein, as well as the control

of genetic information and gene expression data. We look at how proteins find their

place in the cell, how the cell moves, organizes metabolism and differentiates. Again,

the information that is important for each of these can be quickly analyzed and recog­

nized using bioinformatics algorithms (e.g., localization signals, enzyme network

lookup in biochemical metabolism database, and even use it to make custom proteins;

Chap. 11).

This lays the foundation for Part III, which explores fascinating results and current

developments in bioinformatics.

How Do I Understand Bioinformatics?