Ensembl Genomes Metazoa Blast

Ensembl Genomes Metazoa Blast provides sequence similarity searches across Ensembl's curated metazoan genomic sequences using the BLAST algorithm to support comparative and functional genomic analyses.

Key Features:

• Extensive species coverage: Access to genomic data from 87 metazoan species, including chordates and established model organisms.
• Genome assembly integration: Regularly updated to include the latest genome assemblies for species such as human, mouse, zebrafish, and rat.
• Historical assembly access: Provides updates and access to the previous human assembly GRCh37 via a dedicated platform.
• BLAST-based sequence alignment: Uses the BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) algorithm to identify regions of similarity between query and database sequences.
• Integration with VEP and BioMart: Integrates with Variant Effect Predictor (VEP) and BioMart and incorporates additional third-party data to support variant annotation and regulatory data retrieval.
• Scalability and performance: RESTful APIs support larger-scale analyses and BioMart delivers increased retrieval speed for large queries.

Scientific Applications:

• Comparative Genomics: Enables identification of conserved genetic elements and inference of evolutionary relationships across metazoan species.
• Functional Genomics: In conjunction with VEP, supports prediction of functional impacts of genomic variants for studies of gene function and regulation.
• Regulatory Studies: Facilitates retrieval and analysis of cis-regulatory datasets and long-range interactions via BioMart and integrated data sources.

Methodology:

The tool employs BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) for sequence alignment to identify regions of similarity between sequences, supporting identification of homologous genes, prediction of protein functions, and annotation of genomic elements across metazoan species.