my @seq = ( 1 .. 5 );
my $seq = \@seq;   # $seq is now a reference/pointer to @seq
my @query = @$seq; # @query is now a copy

##</code><code>##

my $seq = [ 1 .. 5 ]; # anonymous list
my @query = @$seq; # @query is now ( 1 .. 5 )