What is a FASTA file?
Commonly used when working with bioinformatics and biochemistry, FASTA is a text-based data file used to represent nucleotide or amino acid sequences. Single-letter codes are used to define these sequences, hence the name FASTA – pronounced ”fast A” which stands for Fast-All. Protein – or amino acids – for example, are defined as FAST-P and nucleotide is FAST-N. FASTA files start with a header line that can contain comments along with other relevant information describing the sequence. They begin with a “>” symbol followed by the name. After the heading, there is a stream of sequence data; generally simple sequences but do have a standard for use in the standard IUB/IUPAC codes. There are exceptions to what is allowed, such as a single hyphen or dash to define a gap character and the “*” symbol in protein sequences. FASTA files do not allow numerical characters unless being used to define positions in a sequence.
How to Open FASTA Files
How to Make FASTA Files
Below are some software programs that can open FASTA files. Download one to open your file now.