BIOL368/F11:Class Journal Week 8

Isaiah M. Castaneda

After working with the protein tools on today's assignment, compare your experience with working with the nucleic acid tools versus the protein tools. Which do you like better, and why?

I have no preference in working with either tools. They are both interesting to use, but they provide very different information about the samples being looked at. However, the outcomes from the sequencing tools seemed a bit more closely related to the type of material that has been covered in previous courses throughout my LMU years. Therefore, I more readily understood the point of the results from using the nucleic acid tools, rather than the protein tools. For example, before using the ProtParam and TMHMM programs, I did not really know why I wanted to look for transmembrane regions. Luckily, our text book gave some nice explanations on the importance of looking for such regions. Still, I possess no favoritism between the two tools; they are equally loved.

Isaiah M. Castaneda 00:48, 26 October 2011 (EDT)

Robert W. Arnold

1. I definitely preferred the nucleic acid tools, I found them much easier to use and manipulate. I think I need a bit more practice with the protein tools before I choose which one I find better but as of now my preference lies with the nucleic acid tools. Hopefully, with more experience using the protein tools I will become as comfortable with them as I am with the nucleic acid tools.

Robert W Arnold 02:50, 26 October 2011 (EDT)

Nicolette S. Harmon

1. I prefer the nucleic acid tools just because I have more experience with them over the proteins. The protein tools are interesting but I don't understand some of them, such as the ones for finding the domains. I'm sure it will be the case that I will eventually have no preference, but probably not until I become more comfortable with the protein tools.

Nicolette S. Harmon 01:28, 26 October 2011 (EDT)

Zeb Russo

1. Both tools are useful, but the nucleic acid tools are much easier to use for the simple fact that the information it is trying to convey is much easier and can be generated by a computer progam, while proteins have to be studied previously and put in a database for us to search for them and access them.

Zeb Russo 02:14, 26 October 2011 (EDT)

Alex A. Cardenas

1. Personally I like the protein tools better. Although the nucleic acid tools are helpful, I noticed there are a lot more ways to analyze the sequence using the protein tools. Along with this, I feel like it is pretty user friendly and the book helps in explaining how to analyze the graphs and data.

Alex A. Cardenas Alex A. Cardenas 02:20, 26 October 2011 (EDT)

Samantha M. Hurndon

1. I like the nucleic acid tools better. I do think both are useful, however I seemed to get a bit more confused with the protein tools. With more practice I'm sure I would get the hang of them and feel equal about both.

Samantha M. Hurndon 02:52, 26 October 2011 (EDT)

Chris Rhodes

1. I feel like for our purposes they're both pretty comparable. The protein tools are scattered around many sites so they can be hard to find but really it's all just pasting sequences into boxes. I will say though that since we are just learning the way to interpret the protein site outputs and data it's a little harder at the moment then using the nucleic acid tools.

Chris H. Rhodes 19:11, 26 October 2011 (EDT)