blastn
compares a nucleotide query sequence against a nucleotide sequence database
tblastn
compares a protein query sequence against a nucleotide sequence database dynamically translated in all reading frames.
tblastx
compares the six-frame translations of a nucleotide query sequence against the six-frame translations of a nucleotide sequence database.
A sequence in FASTA format begins with a single-line description, followed by
lines of sequence data. The description line is distinguished from the sequence
data by a greater-than (">") symbol in the first column. It is
recommended that all lines of text be shorter than 80 characters in length. An
example sequence in FASTA
format is:
>gi|532319|pir|TVFV2E|TVFV2E envelope protein
ELRLRYCAPAGFALLKCNDADYDGFKTNCSNVSVVHCTNLMNTTVTTGLLLNGSYSENRT
QIWQKHRTSNDSALILLNKHYNLTVTCKRPGNKTVLPVTIMAGLVFHSQKYNLRLRQAWC
HFPSNWKGAWKEVKEEIVNLPKERYRGTNDPKRIFFQRQWGDPETANLWFNCHGEFFYCK
MDWFLNYLNNLTVDADHNECKNTSGTKSGNKRAPGPCVQRTYVACHIRSVIIWLETISKK
TYAPPREGHLECTSTVTGMTVELNYIPKNRTNVTLSPQIESIWAAELDRYKLVEITPIGF
APTEVRRYTGGHERQKRVPFVXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXVQSQHLLAGILQQQKNL
LAAVEAQQQMLKLTIWGVK
Sequences are expected to be represented in the standard IUB/IUPAC amino acid and nucleic acid codes, with these exceptions: lower-case letters are accepted and are mapped into upper-case; a single hyphen or dash can be used to represent a gap of indeterminate length; and in amino acid sequences, U and * are acceptable letters (see below). Before submitting a request, any numerical digits in the query sequence should either be removed or replaced by appropriate letter codes (e.g., N for unknown nucleic acid residue or X for unknown amino acid residue).
The nucleic acid codes supported are:
A --> adenosine M --> A C (amino)
C --> cytidine S --> G C (strong)
G --> guanine W --> A T (weak)
T --> thymidine B --> G T C
U --> uridine D --> G A T
R --> G A (purine) H --> A C T
Y --> T C (pyrimidine) V --> G C A
K --> G T (keto) N --> A G C T (any)
- gap of indeterminate length
For those programs that use amino acid query sequences (BLASTP and TBLASTN),
the accepted amino acid codes are:
A alanine P proline
B aspartate or asparagine Q glutamine
C cystine R arginine
D aspartate S serine
E glutamate T threonine
F phenylalanine U selenocysteine
G glycine V valine
H histidine W tryptophan
I isoleucine Y tyrosine
K lysine Z glutamate or glutamine
L leucine X any
M methionine * translation stop
N asparagine - gap of indeterminate length
- DESCRIPTIONS
Restricts the number of short descriptions of matching sequences reported to the number specified; default is 5 descriptions.
-
- ALIGNMENTS
Restricts database sequences to the number specified for which high-scoring segment pairs (HSPs) are reported; the default is 50. If more database sequences than this happen to satisfy the statistical significance threshold for reporting, only the matches ascribed the greatest statistical significance are reported.
-
- EXPECT
The statistical significance threshold for reporting matches against database sequences; the default value is 1e-1, such that 1e-1 matches are expected to be found merely by chance, according to the stochastic model of Karlin and Altschul (1990). If the statistical significance ascribed to a match is greater than the EXPECT threshold, the match will not be reported. Lower EXPECT thresholds are more stringent, leading to fewer chance matches being reported. Fractional values are acceptable.