Bioinformatics has been defined in many different ways, but it is common ground to regard this discipline as the application of mathematics, computing and statistics to the analysis of biological information. The objective of bioinformatics is to enable the finding of new biological insights, and to create a broader, more critical view from which unifying principles in biology can be perceived.
Bioinformatics is very important in the field of human genome research. It has become crucial for large-scale measurement technologies such as DNA sequencing, microarrays, and metabolomics. The field of bioinformatics has been aided significantly by Linux-based hardware and software. There are a number of Linux distributions which offer an integrated bioinformatics workstation. The popular distribution Bio-Linux packages hundreds of bioinformatics programs spanning a number of different fields.
There’s a wide selection of Linux bioinformatics tools released under an open source license. This article identifies our favorite tools which are extremely useful for anyone interested in sequence analysis, molecular modelling, molecular dynamics, phylogenetic analysis and more. We hope this feature offers a useful resource for biologists.
Here’s our ratings chart showing our top picks. All the software featured is free and open source goodness.
Let’s explore the 23 bioinformatics tools at hand. For each application we have compiled its own portal page, providing a screenshot of the software in action, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, together with links to relevant resources.
| Bioinformatics Tools | |
|---|---|
| Bioconductor | Analysis and comprehension of high-throughput genomic data |
| Biopython | Tools for biological computation written in Python |
| BioPerl | Perl tools for computational molecular biology |
| UGENE | Set of integrated bioinformatics software |
| GROMACS | Versatile package to perform molecular dynamics |
| IGV | High-performance visualization genome browser tool |
| BioJava | Provides Java tools for processing biological data |
| InterMine | Integrate biological data sources |
| GATK | Genomic analysis toolkit focused on variant discovery |
| bedtools | Powerful toolset for genome arithmetic |
| EMBOSS | The European Molecular Biology Open Software Suite |
| Clustal Omega | Multiple sequence alignment program |
| BLAST | Algorithm for comparing primary biological sequence information |
| Jalview | Multiple sequence alignment editing, visualisation and analysis |
| Bandage | Visualising de novo assembly graphs |
| GenomeTools | Collection of bioinformatics tools |
| AliView | Alignment viewer and editor |
| mothur | Analyze microbial communities |
| cramino | BAM/CRAM quality evaluation |
| abPOA | Adaptive banded Partial Order Alignment |
| Taverna Workbench | For designing and executing bioinformatics workflows |
| geWorkbench | Software platform for integrated genomic data analysis |
| Bioclipse | Rich-client platform chemistry and biology workbench |
This article has been revamped in line with our recent announcement.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |