Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

The animal on the cover of Sequence Analysis in a Nutshell: A Guide to Common Tools and Databases is a liger. Much like sequence analysis, which is a cross between computer science and biology, a liger is the result of a cross between a lion and a tigress. Tigons, which are the offspring of a tiger and a lioness, have also been bred.

In a classic display of "hybrid vigor," a liger may be 10 to 12 feet in length and weigh upwards of 800 to 1,000 pounds, making it significantly larger than either of its parents. Because lions and tigers are genetically very similar, their offspring show a fascinating blend of the features and habits of both species. Depending on which subspecies of lion and tiger are bred together, and how their genes combine, a liger may look more tigerish or more lionish. Ligers are both striped and spotted, the spots being inherited from the lion. A male liger may grow a leonine mane or the facial ruff of a tiger. Female ligers exhibit both the leonine need for social interaction and the tiger-like need for solitude. Both sexes roar like lions and "chuff" like tigers, and most ligers also inherit their tiger parents' love of water. Like other interspecies hybrids, ligers are usually sterile.

Ligers do not occur in the wild, but are the result of captive breeding. Natural breeding is not impossible, just extremely unlikely because the habitats of tigers and lions have little to no overlap, and the solitary tiger would most likely avoid interacting with a pride of lions.

Philip Dangler was the production editor and copyeditor for Sequence Analysis in a Nutshell: A Guide to Common Tools and Databases. Emily Quill, Linley Dolby, and Claire Cloutier provided quality control. Judy Hoer provided production assistance. Nancy Crumpton wrote the index.

Ellie Volckhausen designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is an original illustration created by Lorrie LeJeune. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Joe Wizda and Mike Sierra to FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. This colophon was written by Lorrie LeJeune.

The online edition of this book was created by the Safari production group (John Chodacki, Becki Maisch, and Madeleine Newell) using a set of Frame-to-XML conversion and cleanup tools written and maintained by Erik Ray, Benn Salter, John Chodacki, and Jeff Liggett.