Access to sequence data and related information -- Pairwise sequence alignment -- Basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) -- Advanced database searching -- Multiple sequence alignment -- Molecular phylogeny and evolution -- DNA : the eukaryotic chromosome -- Analysis of next-generation sequence data -- Bioinformatic approaches to ribonucleic acid (RNA) -- Gene expression : microarray and RNA-seq data analysis -- Protein analysis and proteomics -- Protein structure -- Functional genomics -- Genomes across the tree of life -- Completed genomes : viruses -- Completed genomes : bacteria and archaea -- Eukaryotic genomes : fungi -- Eukaryotic genomes : from parasites to primates -- Human genome -- Human disease.

In this broad-based introduction Jonathan Pevsner presents the background theory to bioinformatics. Each chapter includes a problem set, pitfalls, boxes explaining key techniques and mathematics/statistics principles, summary, recommended reading, and a list of freely available software.