Sequence data formats

File type Suffix Import Export Description
AB1 .ab1 X   Including chromatograms
ABI .abi X   Including chromatograms
CLC .clc X X Rich format including all information
Clone manager .cm5 X   Clone manager sequence format
FASTA .fsa/.fasta X X Simple format, name & description
Raw sequence any X   Only sequence (no name)
Sequence CSV .csv X X Simple format. One seq per line: name, description(optional), sequence
Tab delimited text .txt   X Annotations in tab delimited text format
Phred .phd X   Including chromatograms
PIR(NBRF) .pir X X Simple format, name and description
SCF2 .scf X   Including chromatograms
SCF3 .scf X X Including chromatograms
Staden .sdn X  
Swiss-Prot .swp X   Rich information incl. annotations (only peptides)

Note that high-throughput sequencing data formats from Illumina, SOLiD, IonTorrent, 454 and also high-throughput fasta and trace files are imported using a special import as described in Import high-throughput sequencing data. These data can also be exported in fastq format (using NCBI/Sanger Phred quality scores).

When exporting in fasta format, it is possible to remove sequence ends covered by annotations of type "Trim" (read more in Trimming).