Week 1 Summary

In this first week, you have learnt how to read and write DNA and protein sequences, how to save these sequences in files with formats that are useful for downstream analyses as well as for sharing with other researchers. You also learnt why keeping to these strict data formats is essential for computational handling of DNA and protein sequences. The knowledge that you have acquired in this last week represents the founding blocks of bioinformatics research.

By the end of Week 1, you can:

• Explain how DNA and protein sequences are represented and stored in files.
• Predict (with the help of an online server) the amino acid sequence of a DNA sequence
• Read the information contained in EMBL/NCBI/DDBJ file formats
• Download and save to your computer a DNA/protein sequence from one of the primary nucleotide databases.