Publications

The current era of next-generation genome sequencing demands the storage of huge amount of biological data in specific categorized manner. As biology has progressively revolutionized to a data-rich science, the requirement for storing and communicating large datasets has grown tremendously. Biological databases developed as a response to the massive data generated by DNA sequencing technologies. They are complex, heterogeneous, and dynamic. Biological databases can be further classified into sequence, structure, and functional databases. Sequence database stores nucleic acid and protein sequences, and structure database stores the structures of RNA and proteins. Functional databases deliver data on the functional role of gene products, for instance, enzyme activities or biological pathways. The data can be submitted directly to the database, and the submitted data are indexed, optimized, and organized. The data deposited in biological databases is structured for optimal analysis and comprises of raw and annotated data. Data indexing, organization, and optimization support researchers to identify significant data by making it accessible in a format that is machine or computer readable. Sequences and structures are only among the several different types of data required in the practice of the modern molecular biology. In this chapter, we discuss on protein identification and other biological databases which combine different primary and secondary database sources. Identifying protein with its specific characteristics is a significant step in the field of proteomics research. It may lead to identification of candidate signatures or novel biomarkers associated with certain diseases based on their characteristics in the sample (McHugh and Arthur 2008). Identification of proteins is taken as a primary step to illuminate the biological information of an organism via studying its protein patterns (Apweiler et  al. 2004). Other biological database includes data types like two-dimensional gel electrophoresis images of protein expression, mutations, and polymorphism in molecular sequences and structures, metabolic pathways and molecular interactions, functional enrichment, genetic maps, and physiochemical data.