For a very long time, most bioinformatic tools for handling genome data have been geared toward haploid (or diploid but nearly homozygous) organisms such as humans, bacteria and laboratory strains of model species. As a result, these tools often perform very badly on highly heterozygous diploid or polyploid organisms, which is the case of many non-model and/or marine species.
Cracking the biological code: insights from Dr. Dawn Field
We’re used to thinking of codes as long strings of seemingly indecipherable characters – languages known to computer programmers. However, there exists another, more significant code found within us and around us: DNA, our planet’s biological code.