NCBI BLAST

Definition

NCBI BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) is a bioinformatics program that compares nucleotide or protein sequences to sequence databases and identifies regions of similarity. It helps researchers find homologous sequences, infer functional and evolutionary relationships, and guide experimental studies by analyzing large biological datasets quickly and efficiently.

Related terms

Homology:

The existence of shared ancestry between a pair of structures or genes in different taxa, often indicated by similarity in sequence.

Sequence Alignment:

The arrangement of sequences to identify regions of similarity that may indicate functional, structural, or evolutionary relationships between the sequences.

E-value: The expected number of hits one can