3 The Bioinformatics of the Yeast Genome

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the bioinformatics of the yeast genome. The sequence of the complete yeast genome was released in 1996 as a result of an international, worldwide collaborative effort. This event marked the final success of an unprecedented experiment in molecular biology: a distributed, data-oriented approach to sequence the 16 chromosomes of a small, but very well studied, eukaryotic organism. The bioinformatics of the yeast genome involves several technical procedures within the scope of applied informatics, such as data processing, evaluation, and handling. The analysis and annotation of the data must be performed in the context of molecular biology and genetics. The close collaboration of computer scientists and experienced molecular biologists is a necessity. The chapter describes the organizational aspects of a distributed sequencing network, the principles of primary sequence data evaluation, and the implementation of data resources accessible to the biological community. It focuses on methods developed during the sequencing of the yeast genome, such as the annotation and classification of open reading frames (ORFs), structural characterization of yeast proteins, and the visualization of the yeast genome data including evolutionary redundancy.