Computer Analysis Of Genetic Macromolecules: Structure, Function And Evolution

Molecular biology and genetics are fast-growing fields. Genetic engineering and biotechnological innovations have also restructured our views of the field. Raw data from the wet lab are accumulated at an ever increasing rate since the beginning of the large-scale sequencing of genomes of model organisms and the human. The necessary involvement of scientists of widely-divergent backgrounds to analyze the data has been evident, and computers are intimately tied into the analysis of biological data. This volume is a collection of computer and mathematical treatments of current challenges of molecular biology and genetics. It is a product of the collaborative research work at the Computational Genetics and Biophysics Group (Supercomputer Computations Research Institute, USA), the Theoretical Molecular Genetics (Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia) and the Bioinformatics Group (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy). Many of the chapters are firsthand results from these groups, interspersed by remarks to make each chapter self-consistent so that each can be read independently. The book emphazises the fundamental principles of the structural-functional organization of the three major classes of genetic macromolecules: DNA, RNA and proteins. It attempts to introduce universally applicable theoretical principles into the enormous realm of raw data. An integrative, theoretical computer approach is developed to analyze these macromolecules to gain insights into the complexities of their function and evolution. Topics include: analysis of structural-functional organization of nucleotide sequences, mobile genetic elements and transposable sequences, molecular mechanisms of mutagenesis, structural-functional organization of proteins and evolution of genetic macromolecules.