FASTALERT - AN AUTOMATIC SEARCH SYSTEM TO ALERT ABOUT NEW ENTRIES IN BIOLOGICAL SEQUENCE DATA-BANKS

This paper describes a new tool enabling awareness of new sequence dat abank entries of interest. The FastAlert system relieves the researche r from the burden of repeating FASTA searches in order to keep up with the rapidly growing amount of information found in biological sequenc e databanks. The query sequence can be submitted from any computer con nected to the Internet. Upon registration, the databank, including the updates, is scanned at periodic intervals with the sequence provided The results, so-called FastAlert reports, ave delivered via electronic mail. The reports contain the FASTA best-scores list and the similari ty statistics for each entry listed.