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The role of biological information in biological research.
Biological information refers to all the information contained in an organism, such as genome information, the structure of biological macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, and sugars.
Biological information plays an important role in the survival and reproduction of organisms. Biological information covers a wide range. In addition to genetic material, nerve impulses and hormones, the sounds, smells, colors and behaviors of organisms themselves all contain information, which all have an impact on individuals and groups of organisms, and are related to organisms. Survival and evolution are inseparable. The characteristic of biological information is that it consumes very little energy and material to produce great biological effects.
Biological information can generally be divided into genetic information, neurological and sensory information and chemical information. Although the carriers of genetic information and neurosensory information are both chemical substances, the chemical information usually referred to is the information carried and transmitted by chemical substances other than the above two types of substances. Hormones of higher organisms and insect pheromones belong to this category.
Genetic information refers to the information that an organism passes from parent to offspring in order to copy something identical to itself, or from cell to cell every time a cell divides, that is, the sequence of base pairs ( Or refers to the sequence of deoxynucleotides in the DNA molecule). Genetic information is stored in the form of codes on DNA molecules and is passed on to future generations through DNA replication. During the growth and development of offspring, genetic information is transcribed from DNA to RNA, and then translated into specific proteins to perform various life functions. Historically, the concept was first formed by the research of G.J. Mendel (1866), that is, factors corresponding to various biological traits (now called genes) contain corresponding information (later G. Beadle et al. (1941) He pioneered the study of genetic biochemistry and drew an outline: there is a one-to-one correspondence between genes and proteins that determine biological structure and function.
As for the chemical nature of genes, according to O.T. The transformation experiments carried out by Avery et al. (1944), and the trait expression experiments carried out by A. Hershey and M. Chase (1952) using the DNA of E. coli phage, have clarified that DNA is the carrier of genetic information. Progress in the study of attached DNA structure is now in progress. The concept has been established that the information contained in genes can symbolize the base arrangement of DNA. When the information is expressed, the base arrangement of DNA is first transcribed into the base arrangement of RNA, and then based on this arrangement. Synthesize proteins. The carrier of genetic information of some viruses is not DNA, but RNA. Genetic information not only includes the genetic information corresponding to the protein, but also includes the information necessary for interpreting the information, controlling the expression of the information, and for biological purposes. All information necessary to replicate the same structure as one's own.
Nerve and sensory information are carried and transmitted by electrical impulses and neurotransmitters. The nervous system receives information from the internal and external environment, processes, regulates and controls the body. Functions of each part. Organisms rely on electrical impulses and neurotransmitters in the nervous system to carry and transmit information. reaction. Therefore, neural information plays a vital role in the survival and normal life of organisms.
Chemical information is the information transmitted by chemical media in addition to the above two types of substances. The ability to proceed in an orderly manner and respond to the environment in a timely manner is due to the existence of information systems in organisms that are transmitted through various chemical information molecules.
Biological information plays an important role in biological research. , however, after the original biological information resources were mined, life science workers faced severe challenges: What information is contained in the hundreds of millions of ACGT sequences? How does this information in the genome control the development of the organism? How did it evolve? The advanced stage of the bioinformatics industry is reflected in this. Humanity has since entered the post-genomic era centered on bioinformatics. Therefore, the new drug innovation project combined with bioinformatics is a typical application of this stage. Informatics is an important application of biological information in biological research.
Bioinformatics is a science that uses computers as tools to store, retrieve and analyze biological information in life science research. The research object of bioinformatics is biological information. Its research focus is mainly reflected in the two aspects of genomics and proteomics. Specifically, it starts from nucleic acid and protein sequences and analyzes the biological information of the structure and function expressed in the sequences.
Specifically, bioinformatics, as a new subject area, uses genomic DNA sequence information analysis as its source, and conducts protein spatial structure simulation and prediction after obtaining information on protein coding regions, and then Necessary drug design based on the function of specific proteins. Genome informatics, protein spatial structure simulation and drug design constitute three important components of bioinformatics. From the specific content of bioinformatics research, bioinformatics should include these three main parts: (1) research on new algorithms and statistical methods; (2) analysis and interpretation of various types of data; (3) development and effective utilization and new tools for managing data.
As a powerful weapon in genome research, bioinformatics is widely used to speed up the search process for new genes, in order to achieve the purpose of registering patents for "useful" new genes first. In this worldwide competition, how Chinese scientists and the decision-making departments of scientific research funds invest limited investments in combination with the current situation of my country's scientific research level, advantageous areas and other objective conditions in order to obtain the greatest possible scientific research and commercial returns are important. A new topic that cannot be avoided.
The main research directions of bioinformatics: Genomics - Proteomics - Systems Biology - Comparative Genomics, with the milestone progress of biological genome sequencing projects including the Human Genome Project, by The biological data generated, including the birth, aging, illness and death of organisms, are increasing at an unprecedented rate, currently doubling every 14 months. At the same time, with the popularity of the Internet, hundreds of biological databases have mushroomed and grown rapidly. However, these are only the acquisition of original biological information and are the initial stage of the development of the bioinformatics industry. Most of the bioinformatics companies at this stage make a living by selling biological databases. Celera, a company famous for its human genome sequencing, is a successful representative of this stage.
In summary, the research on biological information plays an important role in the vigorous development of biology.