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Bhartiya Krishi Anusandhan Patrika, volume 36 issue 1 (march 2021) : 55-61

Understanding the BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) Program and a Step-by-step Guide for its use in Life Science Research

Kailash Chandra Samal, Jyoti Prakash Sahoo, Laxmipreeya Behera, Trupti Dash
1Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar-751 003, Odisha, India.

  • Submitted24-05-2021|

  • Accepted22-06-2021|

  • First Online 26-06-2021|

  • doi 10.18805/BKAP283

Cite article:- Samal Chandra Kailash, Sahoo Prakash Jyoti, Behera Laxmipreeya, Dash Trupti (2021). Understanding the BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) Programand a Step-by-step Guide for its use in Life Science Research. Bhartiya Krishi Anusandhan Patrika. 36(1): 55-61. doi: 10.18805/BKAP283.

ABSTRACT

Bioinformatics is the new branch of science which deals with the acquisition, storage, analysis and dissemination of biological data with the help of computer science and information technology. It has the enormous ability to analyze a vast quantity of biological data quickly and cost-effectively. In the past decades, enormous sequence information has been generated due to the advances in DNA and protein sequencing techniques. Estimating similarities between biological sequences is becoming necessary to obtain hidden information present within the sequence and to trace evolutionary relationship exist within the sequences. This sequence comparison can be achieved by basic local alignment search tool (BLAST). So BLAST has become a fundamental tools of life science research. Hence it is essential to know how to do sequence comparison using BLAST and how to accurately interpret the BLAST output data. The present article aims to familiarize the biologists and researchers with different BLAST programs and their use in research program.

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