"Frontmatter". In: Plant Genomics and Proteomics

S
UMMARY
Gene discovery involves a number of different phases, some of which can
be carried out in parallel. Most of the discovery starts at the sequence level,
either with genomic sequence or ESTs. The informatics analyses applied to
the sequence data lead to tentative gene assignments. The confirmation of
the function of these tentative expressed sequences (from genomic DNA) or
actual expressed sequences is dependent on additional data. These data can
come from comparative analyses with other organisms where the function
of a similar sequence is known or from direct protein functional studies. 
Patterns of gene expression can also give indications of possible function.
However, at present, it is not possible to go directly from nucleic acid
sequence to protein function, and therefore gene identity, in any organism. 
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