The GATE Grind

GATE 2021 BT – Question 42

Recombinant DNA Technology and Other Tools in Biotechnology · Computational tools: Bioinformatics resources, databases, sequence analysis, alignment and phylogeny · 2 marks · Multiple choice

Which tool compares all six reading frames of a nucleotide query with all six reading frames of a nucleotide database?

  1. BLASTN
  2. BLASTX
  3. TBLASTN
  4. TBLASTX

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Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (D) TBLASTX

Explanation

The BLAST family differs in what is searched and how sequences are translated.

ProgramQueryDatabase
BLASTNnucleotidenucleotide
BLASTXnucleotide, translated in 6 framesprotein
TBLASTNproteinnucleotide, translated in 6 frames
**TBLASTX**nucleotide, translated in 6 framesnucleotide, translated in 6 frames

The tool that compares the six-frame translations of a nucleotide query with the six-frame translations of a nucleotide database is **TBLASTX** (D).