Recent years have seen an explosive growth in biological data. Large sequencing projects are producing increasing quantities of nucleotide sequences. The contents of nucleotide databases are doubling in size approximately every 14 months. The latest release of GenBank (V.139) exceeded two billion base pairs. Not only the size of sequence data is rapidly increasing, but also the number of characterized genes from many organisms and protein structures doubles about every two years. To cope with this great quantity of data, a new scientific discipline has emerged: bioinformatics, biocomputing or computational biology
Entries       Bases   Species                
                                             
7152768 10307972332   Homo sapiens           
5440187  6293834876   Mus musculus           
843877   5553994470   Rattus norvegicus      
569066   1186984387   Danio rerio            
1700546  1060366537   Zea mays               
266693    714394030   Oryza sativa (japonica c
361257    697671246   Drosophila melanogaster
887467    508114342   Canis familiaris       
596909    503066134   Gallus gallus          
589739    424174855   Arabidopsis thaliana   
595964    403835636   Brassica oleracea      
650813    396135104   Bos taurus             
175582    385807223   Pan troglodytes        
25432     337349532   Macaca mulatta         
553918    303123150   Triticum aestivum      
499249    294204103   Ciona intestinalis     
250141    237196637   Medicago truncatula    
222595    233083018   Caenorhabditis elegans 
364210    232049749   Xenopus laevis         
324322    211144144   Zea mays subsp. mays   
297857    210279451   Silurana tropicalis