What is FASTA Format (FF)?

FASTA in bioinformatics is a text-based format for representing protein or nucleotide sequences. FF has numerous application, including multiple sequence alignment and gene prediction. Each sequence in FASTA format begins with a single-line description with ‘>’ character, followed by lines of sequence (DNA or Protein) data.

Structure of FASTA Format

The structure of a FF starts with a ‘>’ character, which indicates the start of a header line. Following this header, you can include a description or identifier of the sequence. The sequence data that follows is presented in plain text, usually in lines of 60-80 characters long for readability. This simple yet effective format makes it easy for researchers to read and manipulate sequences.

Applications of FASTA Format (FF)

FF is fundamental in computational biology, bioinformatics, next generation sequencing, used for storing and sharing large sequence datasets. Numerous bioinformatics tools and software, like BLAST and genome wide analysis which compares an nucleotide sequence or amino acid to a specific database, use it as a standard input. It is a most common option in the area because of its simplicity and flexibility, which enable researchers to evaluate sequence data rapidly.

What is Genome-Wide Analysis