Bioinformatics Applied to Plant Biology

Bioinformatics is a discipline at the intersection of computer science, mathematics, and the life sciences. It relies in particular on the use and development of computational tools for analyzing massive amounts of biological data. Ultimately, this big data can be organized into online, searchable databases so that users can extract data relevant to a biological problem.

The course unit “Bioinformatics Applied to Plant Biology” aims to familiarize students with the use of databases and provide an introduction to data exploration using the R software.

Virtually all instruction will take the form of practical exercises in the computer lab in small groups of students.

In the first part, students will learn the basics of the R programming language, which will enable them to organize and clean their raw data so that it can be fully utilized for subsequent analyses. Next, they will learn how to create clear graphical representations based on biological data. Particular attention will be given to writing reusable scripts and selecting appropriate graphics for the calculations based on the biological question at hand.

In the second part of the course, students will use general-purpose databases such as NCBI or those dedicated exclusively to the model plant Arabidopsis (TAIR) to conduct data mining.

• Knowing How to Manage Data to Support Biology Projects
• Knowing how to apply the principles of reproducible science
• Knowing how to work with data to extract relevant information
• Conceptualize problems related to the analysis of biological data and develop appropriate methodological solutions

Knowing how to search for information in databases