BLAST: at the core of a powerful and diverse set of sequence analysis tools
National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Building 38A, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 301 435 5945; Email: mcginnis{at}ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Received February 20, 2004; Revised April 2, 2004; Accepted April 14, 2004
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) is one of the most heavily used sequence analysis tools available in the public domain. There is now a wide choice of BLAST algorithms that can be used to search many different sequence databases via the BLAST web pages (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/). All the algorithm–database combinations can be executed with default parameters or with customized settings, and the results can be viewed in a variety of ways. A new online resource, the BLAST Program Selection Guide, has been created to assist in the definition of search strategies. This article discusses optimal search strategies and highlights some BLAST features that can make your searches more powerful.
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article provided that: the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with the correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated.
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