Glossary
========

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     :class: underline

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.. rubric:: Glossary of Terms
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:Authors: Justin R. DiAngelo, Alexis Nagengast, Wilson Leung
:Last Update: |today|
:Version: |version|


.. glossary::

    BLAST
        :emphasis:`B`\ asic :emphasis:`L`\ ocal
        :emphasis:`A`\ lignment :emphasis:`S`\ earch :emphasis:`T`\ ool
        is a tool for identifying sequence similarities

    Conservative Substitution Mutation
        A change of a nucleotide in a gene coding sequence that changes the
        amino acid encode to one with similar biochemical properties.

    Database
        In the context of bioinformatics, a collection of DNA or protein
        sequences that can be searched for information similar to a query
        sequence.

    FASTA
        A text-based format for representing either nucleotide sequences or
        amino acid (protein) sequences.

    Gene
        A segment of a chromosome coding for a protein or RNA.

    Homologs
        Genes of similar sequences related by common evolutionary origin.

    Mutation
        A change of a nucleotide in a DNA sequence relative to an ancestral
        sequence. Types include point mutations, duplications, deletions.

    NCBI
        National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is a public
        database that houses molecular biology information including sequences
        from thousands of different species from mammals to fungi.

    Plus (+) Strand
        The top nucleotides that read left to right, 5' to 3' on a genome
        browser

    RefSeq
        The NCBI Reference Sequence Database (RefSeq) is a comprehensive,
        curated database of non-redundant sequence records.