Multi-Blast with Entrez Lookup

The Theory

The idea behind the Multi-Blast with Entrez Lookup (MBEL) program is to better help you better understand the relationship between several sequences or the characteristics of a single sequence. First, MBEL does a BLAST search on one or more query sequences. This returns up to 100 matching sequences for each sequence. Then, Entrez entries for each of those sequences are fetched, and the keywords that describes each sequence are saved. Finally, you are able to compare the sequences and the keywords that each query sequence returned.

The Interface

The interface requires you to enter your sequence in FASTA format, tell whether your sequence is protein or dna, and allows you to look up previous runs by run directory. The FASTA format looks like this:

>name of sequence 1
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
>name of sequence 2
zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba

In order to look up and compare a previous run, the complete directory path should be given (i.e. /sw7/dock/blast_491481).

The Results

After the results are returned, you have an opportunity to view and sort on the data. At the top of the page is the run directory, something needed to look at your data at a future time. You may search on the keywords by typing in a search string just like you were searching the web. Additional information including: keyword similarity, keyword count, entries with the same Entrez accession number, and a blast summary is available. Simply click what you would like to see, choose which blast results you would like queried, and click submit. You can sort on the e-value (significance value) by highlighting that option before searching, and you also have the option of setting e-value cutoffs. The resulting information is shown below the results search form each time you do a search, so you are able to do multiple searches without having to start over from the beginning. Multiple results tables are generated, so scroll down as necessary.