History and evolution of bioinformatics MCQs With Answer

History and evolution of bioinformatics MCQs With Answer

This quiz collection is designed for M.Pharm students to deepen their understanding of how bioinformatics developed and why it matters in pharmaceutical sciences. It traces key milestones — from the first sequence databases and alignment algorithms to structural repositories, ontologies, and next‑generation sequencing — and links historical advances to contemporary applications like drug discovery, target identification, and ADMET prediction. The questions emphasize important people, algorithms, databases, formats and methodological shifts that shaped the field, while highlighting practical implications for pharmaceutical research and development. Use these MCQs to test conceptual memory, build context around tools you will use in research, and prepare for higher‑level discussions in computational biotechnology.

Q1. Who is credited with coining the term “bioinformatics” in the late 1970s?

• Margaret Dayhoff
• Paulien Hogeweg and Ben Hesper
• Claude Shannon
• Frederick Sanger

Correct Answer: Paulien Hogeweg and Ben Hesper

Q2. Which pioneer created the PAM substitution matrices and the “Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure” foundational to sequence comparison?

• Margaret Dayhoff
• Stephen Altschul
• Amos Bairoch
• Temple F. Smith

Correct Answer: Margaret Dayhoff

Q3. Which sequencing method, introduced in 1977, became the standard chain‑termination technique for many years?

• Sanger dideoxy chain‑termination sequencing
• Maxam‑Gilbert chemical sequencing
• Illumina sequencing by synthesis
• Pyrosequencing

Correct Answer: Sanger dideoxy chain‑termination sequencing

Q4. Which algorithm provides an optimal global alignment between two sequences using dynamic programming?

• Needleman–Wunsch algorithm
• Smith–Waterman algorithm
• BLAST
• FASTA

Correct Answer: Needleman–Wunsch algorithm

Q5. The BLAST algorithm, widely used for rapid sequence similarity searching, was introduced by which group?

• Altschul and colleagues (NCBI)
• Lipman and Pearson
• Dayhoff’s group
• Needleman and Wunsch

Correct Answer: Altschul and colleagues (NCBI)

Q6. Which organization is responsible for maintaining and distributing the GenBank nucleotide sequence database?

• NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information)
• EMBL‑EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute)
• SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
• RCSB PDB (Protein Data Bank)

Correct Answer: NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information)

Q7. The FASTA sequence search algorithm, useful for rapid local alignments, was developed by which pair of researchers?

• Lipman and Pearson
• Altschul and Gish
• Smith and Waterman
• Needleman and Wunsch

Correct Answer: Lipman and Pearson

Q8. What type of data is primarily stored in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), established in 1971?

• Amino acid and nucleotide sequences
• Metabolic pathway maps
• Three‑dimensional structures of biological macromolecules
• Gene expression microarray intensities

Correct Answer: Three‑dimensional structures of biological macromolecules

Q9. Which resource provides a controlled vocabulary for describing gene product attributes across species and databases?

• Gene Ontology (GO)
• GenBank
• PDB
• DrugBank

Correct Answer: Gene Ontology (GO)

Q10. A defining characteristic of Next‑Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies is:

• Massively parallel short‑read sequencing producing very high throughput
• Manual long‑read single‑molecule sequencing only
• Radioisotope labeling and slab gel runs
• Exclusive use for protein sequencing

Correct Answer: Massively parallel short‑read sequencing producing very high throughput

Q11. Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) in bioinformatics are primarily used for:

• Modeling protein families and detecting conserved domains
• Directly determining atomic coordinates from diffraction data
• Chemically sequencing DNA bases
• Manual curation of literature only

Correct Answer: Modeling protein families and detecting conserved domains

Q12. Which of the following is NOT typically considered a structural bioinformatics method?

• X‑ray crystallography
• Molecular dynamics simulation
• BLAST sequence alignment
• Homology (comparative) modelling

Correct Answer: BLAST sequence alignment

Q13. Which project produced the first public draft sequence of the human genome announced in 2001?

• The Human Genome Project (International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium)
• The 1000 Genomes Project
• ENCODE (Encyclopedia of DNA Elements)
• The HapMap Project

Correct Answer: The Human Genome Project (International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium)

Q14. Which scientist initiated the curated protein sequence resource Swiss‑Prot in the mid‑1980s?

• Amos Bairoch
• Margaret Dayhoff
• Stephen Altschul
• Temple F. Smith

Correct Answer: Amos Bairoch

Q15. In the early decades, the principal aim of bioinformatics was to:

• Store, retrieve and compare biological sequences to enable evolutionary and functional inferences
• Conduct large randomized clinical trials
• Synthesize novel chemical compounds in the lab
• Manufacture reagents for wet‑lab assays

Correct Answer: Store, retrieve and compare biological sequences to enable evolutionary and functional inferences

Q16. Comparative genomics is primarily used to:

• Identify conserved sequences across species to infer gene function and evolutionary relationships
• Design fermentation processes for biologics manufacturing
• Replace clinical pharmacology studies
• Automatically run laboratory instruments

Correct Answer: Identify conserved sequences across species to infer gene function and evolutionary relationships

Q17. Which computational technique is most directly used to predict how well a small molecule ligand binds a protein target?

• Molecular docking
• Gene Ontology annotation
• BLAST sequence search
• ClustalW multiple sequence alignment

Correct Answer: Molecular docking

Q18. Which phylogenetic tree construction method is based on pairwise distance measures between sequences?

• Neighbor‑Joining
• Maximum Parsimony
• Maximum Likelihood
• BLAST similarity clustering

Correct Answer: Neighbor‑Joining

Q19. Which common sequence file format uses a single line beginning with ‘>’ to denote sequence identifiers?

• FASTA format
• GenBank flatfile format
• PDB coordinate file
• GFF (General Feature Format)

Correct Answer: FASTA format

Q20. Which of the following activities is NOT typically performed by bioinformatics as a discipline in pharmaceutical research?

• Performing wet‑lab PCR experiments
• Virtual screening for lead identification
• In silico ADMET and toxicity prediction
• Analysis of high‑throughput omics datasets for biomarker discovery

Correct Answer: Performing wet‑lab PCR experiments

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