BLAST: Difference between revisions
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== Basic Blast Programs == | == Basic Blast Programs == | ||
There are 5 different BLAST programmes depending on the type of sequence you are studying. | There are 5 different BLAST programmes depending on the type of sequence you are studying. | ||
{| border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="468 | {| border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" width="468" | ||
|+ A table showing a brief description of the five basic blast programmes | |+ A table showing a brief description of the five basic blast programmes | ||
|- | |- | ||
| Nucleotide blast (blastn) | | [http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?PROGRAM=blastn&BLAST_PROGRAMS=megaBlast&PAGE_TYPE=BlastSearch&SHOW_DEFAULTS=on&LINK_LOC=blasthome Nucleotide blast (blastn)] | ||
| Search a nucleotide database using a nucleotide query | | Search a nucleotide database using a nucleotide query | ||
|- | |- | ||
| Protein blast (blastp) | | [http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi?PROGRAM=blastp&BLAST_PROGRAMS=blastp&PAGE_TYPE=BlastSearch&SHOW_DEFAULTS=on&LINK_LOC=blasthome Protein blast (blastp)] | ||
| Search protein database using a protein query | | Search protein database using a protein query | ||
|- | |- | ||
| blastx | | blastx | ||
| Search protein database using a translated nucleotide query | | Search protein database using a translated nucleotide query | ||
|- | |- | ||
| tblastn | | tblastn | ||
| Search translated nucleotide database using a protein query | | Search translated nucleotide database using a protein query | ||
|- | |- | ||
| tblastx | | tblastx | ||
| Search translated nucleotide database using a translated nucleotide query | | Search translated nucleotide database using a translated nucleotide query | ||
|} | |} | ||
Revision as of 10:44, 16 November 2011
BLAST is a primary sequence database that enables you to compare a DNA or protein sequence of interest to other known sequences, allowing you to find regions of similarity between them [1].
Basic Blast Programs
There are 5 different BLAST programmes depending on the type of sequence you are studying.
| Nucleotide blast (blastn) | Search a nucleotide database using a nucleotide query |
| Protein blast (blastp) | Search protein database using a protein query |
| blastx | Search protein database using a translated nucleotide query |
| tblastn | Search translated nucleotide database using a protein query |
| tblastx | Search translated nucleotide database using a translated nucleotide query |
BlastP, allows you to compare an amino acid query sequence against a protein database. BlastN enables you to look at a nucleotide query sequence against a nucleotide sequence database. Using BlastX you can compare a nucleotide query sequence translated in all reading frames against a protein sequence database. With tBlastN you can see the similarites between a protein query sequence and nucleotide sequences from the database, dynamically translated in all reading frames, and finally, tBlastX allows you to compare the six-frame translations of a nucleotide query sequence against the six-frame translations of a nucleotide sequence database [1]. There is also the option to perform more specialized BLAST searches such as a primer BLAST search. Links for these searches can be found below to main BLAST search links.
The results of a BLAST search give a graphic summary of the amount of alignment between the query sequence and the sequence hits from the database. The database sequences which produce significant allignments are shown in a table, which tells you the protein that the sequence codes for. Each has an accession number; clicking on this accession number allows you to see the souce organism of the protien, as well as giving links to papers on the protein. The E value (Expect value) is the staistical significance threshold; it gives the number of hits that are likely to be found by chance, therefore a lower E value will result in better matches as the probability of a chance result is less.
The Blast web page can be found at: http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi