Comparative Genomics

Comparative genomics is the field of bioinformatics that involves comparing the genomes of two different species, or of two different strains of the same species. Computational approaches to genome comparison have recently become a common research topic in computer science.

Applications:-

• Gene Indentification:- Once genome correspondence is established, comparative genomics can aid gene identification. Comparative genomics can recognize real genes based on their patterns of nucleotide conservation across evolutionary time. With the availability of genome-wide alignments across the genomes compared, the different ways by which sequences change in known genes and in intergenic regions can be analyzed. The alignments of known genes will reveal the conservation of the reading frame of protein translation.
• Regulatory motif discovery:-  Regulatory motifs are short DNA sequences about 6 to 15bp long that are used to control the expression of genes, dictating the conditions under which a gene will be turned on or off. Comparative genomics provides a powerful way to distinguish regulatory motifs from non-functional patterns based on their conservation.
• Molecular Medicine:-  The most significant application of comparative genomics in molecular medicine is the identification of drug targets of many infectious diseases. For example, comparative analyses of fungal genomes have led to the identification of many putative targets for novel antifungal.