- Application of e-resources in the field of biology.
- Role of Bioinformatics in Life Sciences.
Now a day's e-learning plays a significant role in the field of life sciences. Without using e-resources, we could not know mysterious things in the sciences, such as molecular biology development. Over 20 years, it has done tremendous evolution. It solved many DNA, RNA, Protein, diseases caused by mutation, hereditary diseases, the enzyme's role in metabolism, immunological techniques, microscopy, metabolic pathways in organisms, proteomics, and genomics, gene bank, cDNA library, etc. Bioinformatics plays an essential role in the field of life sciences. The term Bioinformatics took its origin from two words, 'Bio' meaning living & 'Informatics,' meaning Information Science. It is also called computational molecular biology. Roughly; Bioinformatics describes any use of computers to handle biological information. It supports medical news, data analysis gathered by the various genome projects, gene mapping, and population studies; it develops biological databases.
Biostatistics
is the application of statistics in different fields of biology. Without statistical data, we are unable to
conclude most physical problems. Hence
statistics is considered to be an essential tool in biological investigations. Therefore, Statistical Softwares are useful
for the presentation, analysis, & interpretation of numerical data. They
make the handling of biological data very easy. E.g., Open Stat, Weka, CSPro,
etc. Statistical Softwares are designed
for rapid statistical analysis; a conclusion derived from numerous broad data
is more reliable. Hence we are discussing the essentialness of these two
critical fields.
Yet, some years ago, not many people have heard of the term "e-learning." This is also called technology-supported learning. Biology students, researchers, & any related person of life science have to know basic biology. E-learning is the computer and network-enabled transfer of skills & knowledge. It includes a broad range of e-resources, e.g., internet, satellite, TV; despite this; there are many resources such as the importance of databases –it is an essential tool in assisting scientists in understanding several biological phenomena, there is specific software such as BLAST; FASTA; PHYLIP; PIR. The most popular tool for similarity search is BLAST & FASTA. It allows the sequence comparison or similarity search, whereas PHYLIP is used for phylogenetic analysis & PIR is a Protein Information Resource that describes a protein.
I] Role of bioinformatics in life sciences-
Bioinformatics is a rapidly developing branch of biology, using techniques,
concepts from informatics, statistics, mathematics, chemistry, physics, etc. It has many practical applications in the field of biology. It is also
called the science of developing computer databases to speed up & enhance
biological research. Computers & the World Wide Web (WWW) are dramatically
changing the face of biological research. In short, it is a combination of
computer science, information technology & analysis of genetic information.
A) Significance of biological Databases-It is a
collection of related data, where data means recorded facts. The database has
several advantages over traditional paper-based methods of record keeping.
i. Compactness
ii. Speed
of operation
iii. Up-to-date
information is available on-demand at any time
iv. Accuracy
& consistency of information
Bioinformatics is also called the information
technology applied to molecular biology.
Rapid research in molecular biology has generated vast amounts of data
that cannot be handled manually. e.g.-Data from genome mapping, sequencing,
etc. Therefore, researchers attempted to use computers for data storage,
maintenance & data processing.
A)
BLAST is
a software tool used to determine whether a particular DNA or protein sequence
matches any other DNA or protein sequence. It can be accessed through the
internet at the National Centre for Biotechnology Information at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST.The website of the website containing a user
interface allowing the user to input a sequence. The search algorithm then
compares this sequence with all the sequences held in a database & assigns
a similarity value.
B) Need for Statistical Softwares – On the other hand, there is a strong need for mathematical methods &
computational techniques for processing experimental data. Software packages
useful for presentation, analysis & interpretation of numerical data are
called statistical software. They decrease the error, which is occurred by
handling a large amount of data. It
makes the handling of biological data very easy. Some e.g. of statistical
software are Open Stat, Weak, WinSAAM, etc. The result drawn from a large amount of data
is more correct than the product obtained manually. It gives fast accessibility.
C) Types of Statistical Softwares- There are different software
packages to do statistical works. But only one software is not sufficient.
·
General
Packages- It is used for general purposes such as averages, central tendency,
variation, correlation, regression, etc. E.g., Openstat, Vistat.
·
Curve
Fitting Packages- helps to create suitable curves.
·
Survey
& Testing Software Packages-designed to handle data during surveying,
measurement.
D) Application of Statistical Softwares-
·
For
biological sequence analysis
·
Distribution
of plants & animals in different geographic areas.
·
Study of
ecology at the community level.
·
Statistical
works in population genetics.
Conclusions: -This paper aims to provide information on the essentials and significance of bioinformatics, one of the most vital fields of e-technology. Bioinformatics tools & databases are powerful, valuable & essential in life science research. Without the help of the statistical software (e-resource), we couldn't take even a single research step.
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