Entering edit mode
6 days ago
Besoa
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0
Hello Guys!
I am starting a new job in bioinformatics and need some advice.
What are BED files and why are they necessary?
Thanks!
The first and most important skill for a bioinformatician (or scientist in general) is to find available information online and use it to solve problems. This can be googled, please do so, don't be lazy, it's not getting you anywhere. ChatGPT is great for these sorts of queries as well, highly recommended (or any other LLM-like GPT not hosted by OpenAI).
The (unofficial) specification that Pierre Lindenbaum links to is the correct answer — insofar as there is any kind of specification, as it has been adhoc forever!
It is just a common way to store genomic intervals and their annotations. Other formats exist but there are more tools for handling BED files — and operations on BED files — than other formats, generally speaking.