NCBI BLAST

NCBI BLAST is a powerful bioinformatics tool designed to identify similarities between biological sequences, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins. It compares query sequences against extensive databases to find homologous sequences, aiding in the inference of functional and evolutionary relationships. The tool offers various versions, including nucleotide BLAST, Protein BLAST, and BLASTx, which translates nucleotide sequences to protein sequences before comparison.

Key features of NCBI BLAST include the ability to search against multiple databases, such as the NCBI nucleotide and protein databases, and to limit searches by organism or sequence characteristics. Users can input sequences in FASTA format or use accession numbers for queries. The tool also supports advanced features like PSI-BLAST, which builds a position-specific scoring matrix to refine searches.

NCBI BLAST is widely used in molecular biology and bioinformatics for tasks such as gene identification, phylogenetic analysis, and understanding sequence homology. Its robust capabilities make it an essential resource for researchers seeking to analyze and understand biological sequences.