Studying pathogens degrades BLAST-based pathogen identification.

ABSTRACT: As synthetic biology becomes increasingly capable and accessible, it is likewise increasingly critical to be able to make accurate biosecurity determinations regarding the pathogenicity or toxicity of particular nucleic acid or amino acid sequences. At present, this is typically done using the BLAST algorithm to determine the best match with sequences in the NCBI nucleic acid and protein databases. Neither BLAST nor any of the NCBI databases, however, are actually designed for biosafety determination. Critically, taxonomic errors or ambiguities in the NCBI nucleic acid and protein databases can also cause errors in BLAST-based taxonomic categorization. With heavily studied taxa and frequently used biotechnology tools, even low frequency taxonomic categorization issues can lead to high rate

SUBMITTER: Beal J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10068195 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature