Editing FASTA format (section)

{{short description|File format for DNA or protein sequences}}

{{Infobox file format
| name          = FASTA format
| icon          = 
| iconcaption   = 
| icon_size     = 
| screenshot    = 
| screenshot_size = 
| caption       = 
| _noextcode    = 
| extensions    = .fasta, .fas, .fa, .fna, .ffn, .faa, .mpfa, .frn
| _nomimecode   = 
| mime          = {{code|text/x-fasta}}
| type_code     = 
| uniform_type  = no
| conforms_to   = 
| magic         = 
| developer     = [[David J. Lipman]]<br />[[William Pearson (scientist)|William R. Pearson]]<ref name=rapid>{{cite journal | vauthors = Lipman DJ, Pearson WR | title = Rapid and sensitive protein similarity searches | journal = Science | volume = 227 | issue = 4693 | pages = 1435–41 | date = March 1985 | pmid = 2983426 | doi = 10.1126/science.2983426 | bibcode = 1985Sci...227.1435L }} {{closed access}}</ref><ref name=improved>{{cite journal | vauthors = Pearson WR, Lipman DJ | title = Improved tools for biological sequence comparison | journal = Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | volume = 85 | issue = 8 | pages = 2444–8 | date = April 1988 | pmid = 3162770 | pmc = 280013 | doi = 10.1073/pnas.85.8.2444 | bibcode = 1988PNAS...85.2444P | doi-access = free }}</ref>
| released      = 1985
| latest_release_version = 
| latest_release_date = <!-- {{start date and age|YYYY|mm|dd|df=yes/no}} -->
| genre         = [[Bioinformatics]]
| container_for = 
| contained_by  = 
| extended_from = [[ASCII]] for [[FASTA]]
| extended_to   = [[FASTQ format]]<ref name=fastq/>
| standard      = <!-- or: | standards = -->
| free          = 
| url           = {{URL|https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/fasta.shtml}}
}}

In [[bioinformatics]] and [[biochemistry]], the '''FASTA format''' is a text-based [[File format|format]] for representing either [[nucleotide sequence]]s or amino acid (protein) sequences, in which nucleotides or [[amino acid]]s are represented using single-letter codes.

The format allows for sequence names and comments to precede the sequences. It originated from the [[FASTA]] software package and has since become a near-universal standard in [[bioinformatics]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is FASTA format? |url=https://zhanggroup.org/FASTA/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204183844/https://zhanggroup.org/FASTA/ |archive-date=2022-12-04 |access-date=2022-12-04 |website=Zhang Lab}}</ref>

The simplicity of FASTA format makes it easy to manipulate and parse sequences using text-processing tools and [[scripting language]]s.