We are back, moving to a new chapter of the book and starting a new section on the site. This chapter deals with the manipulation of GenBank files. These files are used by NCBI to store information about RNA, DNA and protein sequences. It is usually composed of an annotation section, that gives information about the sequence present in the particular file. I won’t spend much time explaining the GenBank format, because it is not the goal of the site. The perl book has some good explanation about it and you can also find more information here. Also, we are going to see here some of the characteristics of such files. The GenBank file we are going to manipulate from now on is this one
`LOCUS DQ283072 2414 bp DNA linear VRT 12-MAR-2010 DEFINITION Megaelosia goeldii voucher Paulo Nuin 12S ribosomal RNA gene,
partial sequence; tRNA-Val gene, complete sequence; and 16S
ribosomal RNA gene, partial sequence; mitochondrial.
ACCESSION DQ283072 VERSION DQ283072.1 GI:90296241 KEYWORDS . SOURCE mitochondrion Megaelosia goeldii (Rio big-tooth frog) ORGANISM Megaelosia goeldii
Eukaryota; Metazoa; Chordata; Craniata; Vertebrata; Euteleostomi;
Amphibia; Batrachia; Anura; Neobatrachia; Hyloidea; Hylodidae;
Megaelosia.
REFERENCE 1 (bases 1 to 2414) AUTHORS Frost,D.R., Grant,T., Faivovich,J., Bain,R., Haas,A.,
Haddad,C.F.B., de Sa,R.O., Channing,A., Wilkinson,M.,
Donnellan,S.C., Raxworthy,C., Campbell,J.A., Blotto,B.L., Moler,P.,
Drewes,R.C., Nussbaum,R.A., Lynch,J.D., Green,D.M. and Wheeler,W.C.
TITLE The Amphibian Tree of Life JOURNAL Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 297, 1-291 (2006) REFERENCE 2 (bases 1 to 2414) AUTHORS Frost,D.R., Grant,T., Faivovich,J., Bain,R., Haas,A.,
Haddad,C.F.B., de Sa,R.O., Channing,A., Wilkinson,M.,
Donnellan,S.C., Raxworthy,C., Campbell,J.A., Blotto,B.L., Moler,P.,
Drewes,R.C., Nussbaum,R.A., Lynch,J.D., Green,D.M. and Wheeler,W.C.
TITLE Direct Submission JOURNAL Submitted (26-OCT-2005) Herpetology, Division of Vertebrate
Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at
79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA
FEATURES Location/Qualifiers
source 1..2414
/organism="Megaelosia goeldii"
/organelle="mitochondrion"
/mol_type="genomic DNA"
/specimen_voucher="Paulo Nuin"
/db_xref="taxon:209670"
/country="Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Teresopolis, Rio Beija
Flor, 910 m, 22'24'S, 42'69'W"
misc_feature <1..>2414
/note="contains 12S ribosomal RNA, tRNA-Val, and 16S
ribosomal RNA"
ORIGIN
1 gtttggtcct aaccttgtaa tcaattttta cttaatatac acatgcaagt ctccgcaccc
61 ctgtgaaaac gcccttaaat cccccatggg ataaggagct ggtatcaggc acgaaaatct
121 gcccaaaaca cctagctatg ccacacccac aagggtactc agcagtgatt gacattattt
181 ataagcgcca gcttgactca gttaaagtaa agagagccgg caaatctggt gccagccgcc
241 gcggttaccc cacgtggctc aaattgattt ctttcggcgt aaagcgtgat taaagtgccc
301 atcaacattg gagttaaact aaaattaagc tgtgacacgc ttattttaca gaaaagcaca
361 aacgaaagtt acttcaattt aaacaacttg aattcacgac agtcaggaca caaactggga
421 ttagataccc cactatgccc gaccgtaaac tttaatttac accatcaccg ccagagaact
481 acgagcaaag cttaaaactc aaaggacttg acggtccccc acatccccct agaggagcct
541 gtcctttaat cgataatccc cgcttaacct caccattctt agtctttcag cctgtatacc
601 tccgtcgtca gcttaccccg tgagcgaaaa ttagtgagct taatgtccac acgtctacac
661 gtcaggtcaa ggtgcagcaa atataatggg aagagatggg ctacactttc tagtctagaa
721 tatacgaaag accacctatg aaacctggtc agaaggcgga tttagaagta aaaggaaacc
781 agagcatccc ttttaatttg gcactggggc atgtacacac cgcccgtcac cctcttcaaa
841 gcctaatttt agtatctaac caactaacgc ctagtagaag aggcaagtcg taacatggta
901 agtataccgg aaggtgtgct tggaaacaaa atatagccta atcaaagcat ttcgcttaca
961 ccgaaaagtt atctgtgaaa ttcagattat tttgagctaa aaatctagcc ccactttatt
1021 ctataatccc ttatcactta aattcatgaa tcaaaacatt ttaataatca agtaaaggcg
1081 attgaaaaat taataggagc aatatatact gtaccgcaag ggaaagatga aatagaaatg
1141 aaataataat taaagcataa aaaagtaaag attaaatctt gtaccttttg catcatgatt
1201 taactagtct acccaggcaa aatgatttta agtctgacct cccgaaacta agtgagctac
1261 ttcaaggcag cttaatgagc aaatccgtct ctgtcgcaaa agagtggaga gaccttcaag
1321 tagaagtgat agacctaacg aacttagtaa tagctggtta ttcaagaaaa ggatctcagt
1381 ccaacctaaa gtcaaattaa tgtttaaaaa taaaaattct gaccttagag taattcaatt
1441 aaggtacagc ctacttgaaa caggatacaa ccttaactaa tgggtaactt accccttcat
1501 cttttaagtg ggcctaaaag cagccacctt taaaatagcg tcaaagctta gccgtcctat
1561 acatctaata ccaaaaacat ctatgaaccc tatactcata ttgaataatt ctatattatt
1621 atagagattt ttatgttaaa actagtaaca agaattaaat tttctctatt atgttcgtgt
1681 acatcagaaa ggataaacca ctgataattg acatgcatga gtaaaaagca gtaacttaac
1741 aagaaaaccc tcctaactct aatgttaacc taacacaagt acatctcaag aaagatttaa
1801 agaaaaagaa ggaactcggc aaacattaac ctcgcctgtt taccaaaaac atcgcctctt
1861 gtcaaaattt aagaggtcca gcctgcccag tgaccctgtt caacggccgc ggtatcctaa
1921 ccgtgcgaag gtagcgtaat cacttgttct ttaaataagg actagtatga atggcaccac
1981 gagggttata ctgtctcctt tttctaatca gtgaaactaa tcttcccgtg aagaagcggg
2041 aatttttata taagacgaga agaccctatg gagctttaga cgagtaacaa ctgctaattt
2101 tataatattt cagataatat ctctatccta gcattatgat tataagtctt tggttggggt
2161 gaccgcggag aaaaaaataa cctccacatt gaaagaatat tattctaagc aaaaagacac
2221 atctttaagc atcaacaaat tgacatctat tgacccaata ttttgatcaa cgaaccaagt
2281 taccctaggg ataacagcgc aatccacttc gagagctctt atcgacaagt gggcttacga
2341 cctcgatgtt ggatcagggt atcctagtgg tgtagccgct actaaaggtt cgtttgttca
2401 acgattaaaa ccct
//`
which stores a sequence of a mitochondrial gene of a stream frog from South America, called Megaelosia goeldii, also known as Rio big-tooth frog. (get a better formatted file here) Our fast task will be to extract the DNA sequence from the file. This sounds easy, and not surprisingly it is. If we take a closer look at the file we will see that the sequence starts after the mark ORIGIN. From what we have seen before we just need to read the file, the a boolean variable that checks for ORIGIN and concatenate everything after that. Something like this
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | |
Quick and easy. When we find ORIGIN, issequence has its state
changed to True and the lines below will concatenated into a string. We
print at the end. Next time we will do more fancy things.