Question

Which of the following is wrong about FASTA Sequence Format?

(a) The FASTA sequence format includes a comment line identified by a “>” character in the first column followed by the name and origin of the sequence

(b) The FASTA sequence format includes the sequence in standard one-letter symbols

(c) This format provides a very convenient way to copy just the sequence part from one window to another because there are no numbers or other nonsequence characters within the sequence

(d) The presence of ‘*’ is not quite essential for reading the sequence correctly by some sequence analysis programs

The question was posed to me in quiz.

This interesting question is from Sequence Formats & Computer Storage of Sequences in section Collecting & Storing Sequences in Laboratory of Bioinformatics

Answer 1

The correct answer is:

(d) The presence of ‘*’ is not quite essential for reading the sequence correctly by some sequence analysis programs.

In FASTA format, the sequence is typically represented using standard one-letter symbols, and the comment line (which begins with a '>' character) is used to provide metadata about the sequence, such as its name and origin. The 'asterisk' ('') is used in some contexts to represent the end of a sequence, but its presence is not required for most sequence analysis programs to read the sequence correctly. Therefore, statement (d) is incorrect because the presence of '' is generally important when working with specific formats or in certain biological contexts.