Question

The first ever biological sequence database which was developed by Dayhoff and Eck's 1965 is

• A. Atlas of Protein sequence and structure
• B. Atlas of DNA sequence and structure
• C. Atlas of RNA sequence and structure
• D. Atlas of Protein and Nucleic acid sequence and structure

Hint:

Margaret Dayhoff is often called the "mother of bioinformatics." Her work was foundational and centered on \textbf{proteins}. The famous PAM (Point Accepted Mutation) scoring matrices, which are still conceptually important today, were derived from the alignments in her Atlas.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This question asks to identify the pioneering work of Margaret Dayhoff and Richard Eck, which is considered the first comprehensive biological sequence database.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
In the early days of molecular biology, protein sequencing was more advanced than DNA sequencing. Margaret Dayhoff was a foundational figure in the emerging field of bioinformatics. In 1965, she and her colleagues collected all the then-known protein sequences and published them in a book titled the "Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure". This was more than just a collection; Dayhoff used these sequences to study evolutionary relationships between proteins and developed the first substitution matrices (the PAM matrices) for sequence alignment. DNA and RNA sequencing technologies were not mature enough at that time to generate large databases.
Step 3: Final Answer:
The groundbreaking 1965 publication by Dayhoff and Eck, which established the first biological sequence database, was the Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure.