Chapter 8 - Introduction to Computational and Bioinformatics Tools in Virology

Abstract

Viruses are a primary factor in the human infectious disease. Viral disease outbreaks and timely epidemics to different parts of the world cause severe clinical manifestations and congenital malformations. Understanding the structure–function correlation in viruses is an essential phenomenon for the identification of a potential target for the inhibitors and vaccine development. In virology research, virus-related databases and bioinformatics tools are essential equipment to distinguish the relationship between different datasets about viruses and host–virus interactions. Bioinformatics analysis includes different tasks such as sequence alignment, homology searching, identification of open reading frames, motif, and gene prediction. It is also essential for the prediction of features such as transmembrane domains, glycosylation sites, and protein secondary and tertiary structure prediction. One of the crucial tasks of bioinformatics is also the analysis of protein–protein interaction network and biochemical pathway, which can help elucidate information at the biological systems level. Microarray analysis provides methods for high throughput screening and gene expression profiling.