Figure 3

A functional or systems overview of biology. Going from genomic information (top) to creating a living organism with different features/attributes (bottom) involves a number of steps. Evolution begins at the sequence or informational level (left), but the effects of informational alterations manifest at different levels (moving left to right), as DNA is translated into proteins that interact in three dimensions. Molecular biologists obtain information and compile observations at various levels with the goal of linking sequence changes to physical ramifications such as changes in kinetics, solvability or structure. In the end, we want to understand how these alterations in physical properties create phenotypic changes. The ability to integrate sequence-level information with higher-level observations/classifications enables trends to be identified.