Bioinformatics, the collection, classification, storage and retrieval of information via computers and advanced statistical analysis, uses algorithms that put DNA sequences in compact forms. This allows for the rapid extraction of the most important parts of the DNA information. The fact that every question we know how to phrase in biology can be phrased in terms of genes, and every question about genes can be phrased in terms of DNA sequences and how they compare shows the importance of this area of biotechnology. Scientists in the USA, Europe and Japan are increasingly using bioinformatics to:
- Analyze extremely long sequences of DNA, in particular the data from the Human Genome Project
- Extract key information concerning the genetic basis of some diseases
- Derive the longest common subsequence from a collection of DNA sequences or recognize common patterns among DNA sequences
- Construct phylogenetic trees using DNA sequence information