BLAST (biotechnology)

BLAST (biotechnology)

BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) is a bioinformatics algorithm used in the field of molecular biology. It was developed by Stephen Altschul, Warren Gish, Webb Miller, Eugene Myers, and David J. Lipman at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Overview

BLAST is a powerful tool that allows researchers to compare a nucleotide sequence or protein sequence against databases of known sequences. This comparison allows the identification of homologous sequences, which can provide insights into the function and evolutionary history of the sequence in question.

Algorithm

The BLAST algorithm works by breaking the query sequence into a series of "words" of a fixed length. These words are then compared to the database sequences to identify matches. The algorithm then extends these matches to identify high-scoring pairs (HSPs). The HSPs are then used to generate an alignment score, which is used to rank the matches.

Applications

BLAST is widely used in genomics and proteomics research. It is a critical tool for identifying gene and protein sequences in newly sequenced genomes. It is also used in phylogenetics to identify homologous sequences and construct phylogenetic trees.

See also

• Sequence alignment
• Bioinformatics
• Genomics
• Proteomics