BLAST

BLAST is a service of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). A nucleotide or protein sequence sent to the BLAST server is compared against databases at the NCBI and a summary of matches is returned to the user.

Overview of database search programs

		Database
		Protein	DNA
Query	Protein	ssearch	tfasta (translates database)
		fasta	tfastx3 (translates database, allowing frame-shift gaps)
		blastp	tblastn (translates database)
		PSI-blast (simplified profile search)
	DNA	fastx3 (translates query, allowing frameshift gaps)	ssearch
		blastx (translates query)	fasta
			blastn
			tblastx (translates query and database; no gaps)

See also

• blastall
• formatdb
• FASTA format