Question

15. Using BLAST, identify each of the sequences provided to your section. Make a table (like the table below) showing the sequence name, the species name of the closest match, the common name of this organism and the phylum/Subphylum that the species belongs to. For common name/phylum, click the species name in EOL (Encyclopedia of Life), then look at names. - 3pts An example is given below + Phylum/subphylum Sequence Species name name DR Drosophila melanogaster Common name Fruit fly Arthropoda/ Insecta

Answer 1

In bioinformatics, BLAST (basic local alignment search tool) is an algorithm and program for comparing primary biological sequence information, such as the amino-acid sequences of proteins or the nucleotides of DNA and/ or RNA sequences. A BLAST search enables a researcher to compare a subject protein or nucleotide sequence (called a query) with a library or database of sequences, and identify library sequences that resemble the query sequence above a certain threshold. Different types of BLASTs are available according to the query sequences and the target databases. For example, following the discovery of a previously unknown gene in the mouse, a scientist will typically perform a BLAST search of the human genome to see if humans carry a similar gene; BLAST will identify sequences in the human genome that resemble the mouse gene based on similarity of sequence.

Sequence name	species name	common name	phylum/sub-phylum
CG15239	Drosophila melanogaster	fruit fly	Arthropoda/insecta
CG5823	Drosophila melanogaster	fruit fly	Arthropoda/insecta