There have been immense technological improvements in recent years in the field of genetics. With faster and more accurate sequencing techniques, the field of bioinformatics has radically transformed from a slow, ineffective career choice into an efficient research-producing machine. One of its most important improvements is in the analysis of the DNA. Using DNA, we can identify organisms, improve proteins, and even create our own synthetic organisms. These facts make us take a deeper look into the technology of modern bioinformatics.
A brief background of the pathway from DNA to the processes of protein production may improve our knowledge of how DNA sequencing and alignment work. Cells of every type are vehicles of hereditary information. They all store the information in the same chemical code called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), which are long, unbranched, polymer chains. Each monomer in a DNA strand, called a nucleotide, is composed of two parts: a sugar with a phosphate group and a base of adenine, thymine, guanine, or cytosine. Each sugar is linked to the next by the phosphate group, which creates a chain of sugar-phosphate backbones with the bases protruding in the center. These bases, in DNA, are connected by hydrogen bonds to the complementary base, adenine to thymine, and cytosine to guanine. When all these bases and backbones are interconnected, it forms the famous double-helix shape that dominates biology textbooks. DNA has one more important function, that of replication. Universally, DNA has the information stored, and polymerization is the method that replicates it to be used in future generations (Alberts, et al. 2008).
Improvements in gene sequencing techniques have been one of the drastic improvements in biological technology. Early sequencing techniques included the Maxam-Gilbert method and chain termination methods. The