Figure 1

Schematic of a BLAST search. The first phase is "setup". The query is read, low-complexity or other filtering might be applied to the query, and a "lookup" table is built. The next phase is "scanning". Each subject sequence is scanned for words ("hits") matching those in the lookup table. These hits are further processed, extended by gap-free and gapped alignments, and scored. Significant "preliminary" matches are saved for further processing. The final phase in the BLAST algorithm, called the "trace-back", finds the locations of insertions and deletions for alignments saved in the scanning phase.