aaatttctga caaacgttac agggtgctgc tctgcaacgg tcaccagact cccgctctcc aacaaggtac tcacagcagt agacaggtca ctgcgttgtc cttgagatct aggagctcca cactcgataa gtaagttgcc ttctttactg cagtattctt tattctgctg gtctgttcct ttcgctttct cgatgtggca gcgggcacca aaataccact tcactttatt aaaagtttgc ttcttcacaa aattagcgaa cccctgtagg tggggtgttc ggccttcctc attaccctcc tcgccaacaa taaaataatc aaatagggag attgggagct cccgtatttt cttgcgctcg tcttcggaag gattattgag agtgaacacc caccttttat gtggttgggg tccgcttctt ccattcttct tactgggcat gttgctgctg aggtgctgcc gaggtgctgc cgctgccgaa gtgcgctggt aatacttaca gcgcacttct ttcgttttca gctatgacgt atccaaggag gcgtttccgc agacgaagac accgcccccg cagccatctt ggccagatcc tccgccgccg cccctggctc gtccaccccc gccaccgtta ccgctggaga aggaaaaatg gcatcttcaa cacccgcctc tcccgcacca tcggttatac tgtcaagaaa accacagtca gaacgccctc ctggaatgtg gacatgatga gatttaatat taatgatttt cttcccccag gagggggctc aaaccccctc actgtgccct ttgaatacta cagaataagg aaggttaagg ttgaattctg gccctgctcc ccaatcaccc agggtgacag gggagtgggc tccactgctg ttattctaga tgataacttt gtaacaaagg ccaatgccct aacctatgac ccctatgtaa actactcctc ccgccatacc ataacccagc ccttctccta ccactcccgg tactttaccc cgaaacctgt ccttgatggg acaatcgatt acttccaacc caataacaaa agaaatcaac tctggctgag actacaaact actggaaatg tagaccatgt aggcctcggc actgcgttcg aaaacagtat atacgaccag gactacaata tccgtataac catgtatgta caattcagag aatttaatct taaagacccc ccacttaacc ctaagtgaat aataaaaacc attacgaagt gataaaaaag actcagtaat ttatttcata tggaaattca gggcatgggg gggaaagggt gacgaactgg cccccttcct ccgtggattg ttctgtagca ttcttccaaa ataccaagga agtaatcctc cgatagagag cttctacagc taggacagca gttgaggagt accattccaa cggggtctga ttgctggtaa tcagaatact gcgggccaaa aaaggtacag ttccaccttt agtctctaca gtcaatggat atcgatcaca cagtctcagt agatcatccc acggcagcca accataaaag tcatcaataa caaccacttc ttcaccatgg taaccatccc accacttgtt tcgaggtggt ttccagtatg tggtttccgg gtctgcaaaa ttagcagccc atttgctttt accacaccca ggtggcccca caatgacgtg tacattggtc ttccaatcac gcttctgcat tttcccgctc actttcaaaa gttcagccag cccgcgg
Whos DNA is this?
wait how the hell
Ok so like. I’m kind of torn because I don’t want to just. Use research resources all willy nilly but I think it’s important that people see how much information we have about molecular biology and how cool it is!!! And I think this counts as using my doctorate for good
So NCBI (National Centre for Biotechnology Information) has. MASSIVE databases that include pretty much every genome that’s been published, and then even more that haven’t been. If someone’s doing research, it’s probably in there.
There’s a tool called BLAST that lets you search (”query”) their databases for sequences. This is one of my bread and butter tools as a molecular biologist. I’m showing the web interface here, which lets you search things quickly and easily.
If you choose blastn, you’ll get this page, where you can put your query sequence. Like the smash above.
There’s a lot of other stuff here that’s probably not worth belaboring, we can just use default settings for this example it’s fine.
Paste that sucker into the query box and you legit just. Hit the BLAST button. Search but for DNA. Wowzers.
You’ll get a results page with your best matches! Behold: porcine circovirus
I don’t have the language to express how AMAZING it is how much information we have at our fingertips - and nowhere near the language to explain how it’s a drop in the ocean of diversity that exists in the world. Regardless. Beautiful. Powerful. Amazing.
Nerds.














