Basic Local Alignment Search Tool
1990 · paper · Biomedicine
Introduces BLAST, a method for rapidly comparing DNA and protein sequences against databases by approximating optimal local alignments. It is reported to be more than an order of magnitude faster than existing tools of comparable sensitivity.
Checked: PDF from publications.mpi-cbg.de, fetched 5 Oct 2026. Page numbers are those of that PDF.
0 findings
None that passed a second check.
6 minor (typos and the like; most checked by the judge only)
Wording The word counts in Table 4 (44,587 at w=8 to 44,583 at w=12) are one fewer than the n−w+1 rule stated in Methods gives for the 44,595 bp rabbit sequence (44,588 to 44,584).
- p. 7 Table 4, Words column
44,587
- p. 7 Results (d), last line / p.7 first line
44,595 bp section of
- p. 3 Methods (c), DNA word list
n-w+1 words
- p. 3 Methods 2(c), DNA word list
a query sequence of length n yields a list of n−w+1 words
Only the authors can say what is right here.
Judge's note: Page 3 states that a query of length n 'yields a list of n−w+1 words'. Page 7 gives 44,595 bp for the rabbit section and Table 4 Words 44,587/586/585/584/583. Every value is off by exactly one, which implies n = 44,594. The paper gives no explanation, for example a trimmed base.
Second check: another model agreed
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Typo Abbreviation footnote on p. 404 reads "BLAST, blast local alignment search tool", but the title, abstract and text expand it as "Basic Local Alignment Search Tool".
- p. 2 Footnote to BLAST†, bottom of left column
BLAST, blast local alignment search tool
- p. 1 Title and abstract
basic local alignment search tool (BLAST)
- p. 2 Introduction, first paragraph p. 404
(Basic Local Alignment Search Tool)
- p. 2
BLAST, blast local alignment
Judge's note: Page 2 image (p. 404): the footnote at the bottom of the left column reads 'BLAST, blast local alignment search tool'. The text line it annotates reads 'BLAST† (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool)'.
Second check: none (judge only)
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Typo Subject–verb disagreement on p. 406: "Because the frequencies of paired letters in MSPs approaches a limiting distribution" (should read 'approach').
- p. 4 Results (a), left column, lower part
frequencies of paired letters in MSPs approaches a
Judge's note: Page 4 image, left column, lower paragraph: the sentence is printed with 'approaches'. The subject is the plural 'frequencies'.
Second check: none (judge only)
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Typo Missing comma in the citation "(Lipman & Pearson 1985; Pearson & Lipman, 1988)" on p. 408.
- p. 6 Results (c), right column, FASTP comparison
(Lipman & Pearson 1985; Pearson & Lipman, 1988)
Judge's note: Page 6 image, right column, FASTP paragraph: there is no comma before 1985. Other citations use 'Author, year'.
Second check: none (judge only)
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Typo P. 409 reads "An alignment of such a pair requires insertion and deletions", mixing the singular 'insertion' with the plural 'deletions'.
- p. 7 Results (d), left column
insertion and deletions
Judge's note: Page 7 image, left column: printed as quoted. This is a minor grammatical inconsistency.
Second check: none (judge only)
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Typo The reference "Sankoff, D. & Kruskal, J. B. (1983) Time Warps…" has no period after the year, unlike every other entry.
- p. 8 References
Sankoff, D. & Kruskal, J. B. (1983) Time Warps
Judge's note: Page 8 image, reference list: confirmed. Every other entry has '(year).'
Second check: none (judge only)