The Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) is a set of widely-used sequence comparison tools. BLAST files, either raw (.blast and .blast.bz2 extensions) or compressed (.blast.gz extension), can be opened by dragging and dropping them into the main Maps page or by selecting them using the File tool on the main toolbar. This will open the External Blast Map Matching window (shown below).

When the BLAST file has loaded you need to match it with a map set by selecting it in the Map Set panel or by searching for it in the text entry box. Once you have made your selection Persephone will match the data in the file against the Persephone database. If matches were found without errors the Matched Map Names panel will be populated if as shown below. If there were errors an error message will be displayed as described in Troubleshooting.

The Blast File Map Name column lists the map's name in the file you loaded whereas the DB Map Name column lists the name of the map in Persephone's database.

Select one or more map sets in the Blast File Map Name panel and then click the View Blast Results button. The Blast Results window will be displayed as shown in the example below.

See BLAST Results Window for more information about this window.

Troubleshooting

If there were any errors when Persephone tried to match the data in the external BLAST file with the Persephone database an "Error Processing External Blast" error message will be displayed as shown below.

Click this error message to display details about the errors as shown below.

Click the Copy button to copy the error messages into the Clipboard.