DINOINFORMATICS

Matt Vaughn, Director of Life Sciences Computing, Texas Advanced Computing Center

BIOINFORMATICS IS THE INTERSECTION OF COMPUTER

SCIENCE AND BIOLOGY

By developing techniques for analyzing sequence data and

structures, we can attempt to understand the basis of life

DNA SEQUENCING COSTS HAVE DECREASED FROM

$1B/GENOME IN 2000 TO $500 in 2015

CHEAP DNA SEQUENCING HAS ALLOWED PEOPLE TO

START ASKING REVOLUTIONARY QUESTIONS

WHERE DID MY ANCESTORS LIVE?

WHY DO LEAVES CHANGE COLOR IN THE FALL?

WHAT DOES THE BIRD FAMILY TREE LOOK LIKE?

AND ARE THEY REALLY RELATED TO DINOSAURS???

FULL GENOME

SEQUENCING

45 BIRD GENOMES

PLUS ANOLE,

ALLIGATOR, SEA

TURTLE

LOOK AT EVERYTHING

NOT JUST PROTEINS,

SPECIFIC GENES, OR

TRAITS

DATA TSUNAMI

13,533 species 13,537 species

IN THE BIRD GENOMES DATA SET THERE ARE MORE

POSSIBLE TREES THAN ATOMS IN THE UNIVERSE

A) WRITE SMART ALGORITHMS

B) BRING ON THE HEAVY METAL

COMPUTERS BIGGER THAN A 747

ENOUGH DISK TO HOLD 16000 BLU-RAYS

INTERNET 1000X FASTER THAN HOME

OBVIOUS EXPLOSION

AT 65MYA

MOST BIRD FAMILIES

WERE ESTABLISHED BY 50MYA

BIRDS OF PREY ARE

NOT MONOPHYLETIC

OSTRICHES,

CHICKENS, DUCKS ARE

FOSSIL LINEAGES

PROTEOMICS IS SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF PEPTIDE

FRAGMENTS - WHAT ARE THE PROTEINS IN A GIVEN

SAMPLE?

RESULT – STRINGS OF AMINO ACID SEQUENCES

GETGPAGPAGPPGPAGAR

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF

MEDICINE

PUBMED

GENBANK

BLAST

HADROSAUR COLLAGEN

MATCHES THE FOSSIL BIRD

LINEAGES – THERE IS OF COURSE A SMALL

POSSIBILITY THAT THIS IS BY CHANCE, RIGHT?

Gallus(Chicken)

Meleagris(Turkey)

Tinamus(Tinamou)

Struthio(Ostrich)

WANT TO DO YOUR OWN PALEOINFORMATICS?

EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS AT NCBI - TRY SEARCHING FOR

TYRANNOSAURUS, MAMMOTH, OR NEANDERTHAL!

DISCUSSION AND QUESTION TIME!