> seq1 This is the description of my first sequence. AGTACGTAGTAGCTGCTGCTACGTGCGCTAGCTAGTACGTCA CGACGTAGATGCTAGCTGACTCGATGC > seq2 This is a description of my second sequence. CGATCGATCGTACGTCGACTGATCGTAGCTACGTCGTACGTAG CATCGTCAGTTACTGCATGCTCG
FASTA is probably the simplest of formats for unaligned sequences.
FASTA files are easily created in a text editor. Each sequence is
preceded by a line starting with >. The first word on this line
is the name of the sequence. The rest of the line is a description of
the sequence (free format). The remaining lines contain the sequence
itself. You can put as many letters on a sequence line as you want.
Blank lines in a FASTA file are ignored, and so are spaces or other gap symbols (dashes, underscores, periods) in a sequence. Any other non-amino or non-nucleic acid symbols in the sequence should produce an appropriately strident string of warnings on yur terminal screen when you try to use the file.