BLAST
Science & Engineering abbreviation · Genetics
| Stands for | Basic Local Alignment Search Tool |
|---|---|
| Categories | Science & Engineering |
BLAST stands for Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, a genetics abbreviation.
Widely used program that searches databases for DNA or protein sequences similar to a query, ranking matches by statistical significance. Researchers use BLAST to identify unknown sequences, find related genes in other species and check primers for specificity.
Example: A BLAST search showed the unknown sequence was 98% identical to a known bacterial gene.
Usage notes
Stephen Altschul, Warren Gish, Webb Miller, Eugene Myers and David Lipman published BLAST at the US National Center for Biotechnology Information in 1990, and the paper is one of the most cited in science. Variants include BLASTN for nucleotides and BLASTP for proteins. Its speed comes from first finding short exact "word" matches.
Related abbreviations
More genetics abbreviations
- AD – Autosomal dominant
- AR – Autosomal recessive
- atDNA – Autosomal DNA
- BAC – Bacterial artificial chromosome
- bp – Base pair
- cDNA – Complementary DNA
- ChIP-seq – Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing
- cM – Centimorgan
- CNV – Copy-number variation
- CpG – Cytosine-phosphate-guanine (site)
- dsDNA – Double-stranded DNA
- eQTL – Expression quantitative trait locus