What is the FASTA file format?
The FASTA (pronounced “fast A”) format is commonly used to capture sequence information, along with some primary annotation of that sequence. It is also called the “Pearson format” after its creator, William Pearson, who developed the format to be used with the FASTA alignment program. The format stipulates that a line beginning with the “>” symbol contain the sequence identifier or primary annotation. The sequence data then begins on the next line and continues until it concludes with another line starting with the “>” symbol.
