Genome Assembly
Genome assembly is the computational process of reconstructing the complete DNA sequence of an organism from short, fragmented sequencing reads. It involves aligning and merging these reads to produce longer contiguous sequences (contigs) and scaffolds, ultimately aiming to represent the original genome structure. This is a fundamental step in genomics for understanding genetic information, variations, and biological functions.
Developers should learn genome assembly when working in bioinformatics, computational biology, or genomics research, as it's essential for analyzing DNA data from technologies like Illumina or PacBio. It's used in applications such as disease research, evolutionary studies, and agricultural genomics to identify genes, mutations, and structural variations. Mastery enables building tools for sequence analysis, variant calling, and personalized medicine.