Background: Proteins that are similar in sequence or structure may perform different functions in nature. In such cases, function cannot be inferred from sequence or structural si...
Bioinformaticists use the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) to characterize an unknown sequence by comparing it against a database of known sequences, thus detecting evolu...
Background: Ultraconserved elements are nucleotide or protein sequences with 100% identity (no mismatches, insertions, or deletions) in the same organism or between two or more or...
Background: The explosive growth of biological data provides opportunities for new statistical and comparative analyses of large information sets, such as alignments comprising te...
There are currently a large number of ‘‘orphan’’ G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) whose endogenous ligands (peptide hormones) are unknown. Identification of these pepti...