Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution

In the current era of complete genome sequencing, Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution provides an up-to-date and comprehensive introduction to bioinformatics in the context of evolutionary biology. This accessible text: provides a thorough examination of sequence analysis, biological databases, pattern recognition, and applications to genomics, microarrays, and proteomics emphasizes the theoretical and statistical methods used in bioinformatics programs in a way that is accessible to biological science students places bioinformatics in the context of evolutionary biology, including population genetics, molecular evolution, molecular phylogenetics, and their applications features end-of-chapter problems and self-tests to help students synthesize the materials and apply their understanding is accompanied by a dedicated website - www.blackwellpublishing.com/higgs - containing downloadable sequences, links to web resources, answers to self-test questions, and all artwork in downloadable format (artwork also available to instructors on CD-ROM). This important textbook will equip readers with a thorough understanding of the quantitative methods used in the analysis of molecular evolution, and will be essential reading for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and researchers in molecular biology, genetics, genomics, computational biology, and bioinformatics courses.

Preface. Chapter Plan. Chapter 1. Introduction: The Revolution in Biological Information. Chapter 2. Nucleic Acids, Proteins, and Amino Acids. Chapter 3. Molecular Evolution and Population Genetics. Chapter 4. Models of Sequence Evolution. Chapter 5. Information Resources for Genes and Proteins. Chapter 6. Sequence Alignment Algorithms. Chapter 7. Searching Sequence Databases. Chapter 8. Phylogenetic Methods. Chapter 9. Patterns in Protein Families. Chapter 10. Probabilistic Methods and Machine Learning. Chapter 11. Further Topics in Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetics. Chapter 12. Genome Evolution. Chapter 13. DNA Microarrays and the 'omes. Mathematical Appendix. List of Web address. Glossary. Index.