Bioinformatics is a new discipline that addresses the need to manage and interpret the data that is being massively generated by the "omic" revolution (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, etc.). This discipline represents the convergence of biology, computer sciences, statistics, and information technologies, and encompasses analysis and interpretation of biomolecular data, modeling of biological phenomena, and development of algorithms and statistical approaches. Bioinformatics is important to the crop sciences because it plays an important role in the management and exploitation of microbial, plant and animal genomic resources.