When a BLAST database search is complete, the BLAST Search Results window appears, showing a list of sequences that match your query.

Task Button to use…
To open one or more results in the selected Lasergene application Open With
To open one or more results in the current application Create Document
To open one or more results in your default web browser Launch Browser
To save a group of results as sequence files Batch Save
To print one or more results Print

The lower pane of the BLAST Search Results window contains the alignment of the query (upper sequence) to the highlighted database entry (lower sequence). The upper pane of the window contains the name of possible matches in order of probability. After using Create Document or Batch Save, selections that have been downloaded or opened are denoted with a black diamond or arrow.

The following columns are available in the upper part of the window. Click on a column header to sort the rows by that column.

Column Name Description
Score The similarity score for the result.
Expected The expectation value. This corresponds to the Expect value displayed in the lower pane of the window.

Note: Detailed information about how Score and Expected are derived is available at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST. In general, a higher score and lower expectation connote a better match.
Query Cov. The percentage of the queried sequence that aligns to a match in the database. For example, if you BLAST a range of 596 bases, and 565 of those bases align to a sequence in the database, then the Query Cov. value will be 565/596, or 95%.

Note: Query Cov. differs from the Identity value shown in the lower portion of the BLAST window. Identity is the percentage of bases within the alignment that match. For example, if 565 bases align to a sequence in the database, and there are 3 mismatches within the alignment, then the Identity value would be 562/565, or 99.5%.
Query Left The left end coordinate of the queried sequence that corresponds to the left end coordinate of the matching result (DB Left).
Query Right The right end coordinate of the queried sequence that corresponds to the right end coordinate of the matching result (DB Right).
Identifier The sequence identifier for the result.
DB Left The left end coordinate of the result sequence that corresponds to the left end coordinate of queried sequence (Query Left).
DB Right The right end coordinate of the result sequence that corresponds to the right end coordinate of queried sequence (Query Right).
Description The description, from NCBI, of the result sequence.

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