DNA sequencing is a laboratory technique used to determine the exact sequence of bases (A, C, G, and T) in a DNA molecule.DNA sequence information is important to scientists investigating the functions of genes. The technology of DNA sequencing was made faster and less expensive as a part of the Human Genome Project.
Genes are a set of instructions that determine what the organism is like, its appearance, how it survives, and how it behaves in its environment. A gene consists of a long combination of four different nucleotide bases, or chemicals. There are many possible combinations.
The four nucleotides are: A (adenine) C (cytosine) G (guanine) T (thymine) Different combinations of the letters ACGT give people different characteristics. For example, a person with the combination ATCGTT may have blue eyes, while somebody with the combination ATCGCT may have brown eyes.
In bioinformatics, FASTA format is a text-based format for representing nucleotide sequences or amino acid (protein) sequences, in which nucleotides or amino acids are represented using single-letter codes [A,C,G,T,N] where A=Adenosine, C=Cytosine, G=Guanine, T=Thymidine and N= any of A,C,G,T. The format also allows for sequence names and comments to precede the sequences.