Reformatting BLAST+ pairwise alignment?

[Genomics101]

Greetings!

The default for BLAST+ output is a pairwise alignment broken up into 60bp increments:

Query  1     TTATTTTTCTTGATAGAATTAATTCTAATATTAGCACATTAAAAAATACTAAGTC-AAAT  59
             ||||||| ||||||||  |||||| |||||||| |||||||||||||| |||||| ||||
Sbjct  542   TTATTTTGCTTGATAGCGTTAATTATAATATTACCACATTAAAAAATATTAAGTCAAAAT  601

Query  60    TGTAATATTTCATTTGATATTGTATGCATACAATTTT-ATC---T--TACCTTTAAGAAT  113
             ||||||||||||||||||  ||||||||||||||||| |||   |  ||||||||| |||
Sbjct  602   TGTAATATTTCATTTGAT-CTGTATGCATACAATTTTAATCTTATCATACCTTTAATAAT  660

Query  114   ATGTATAA-TAATTTATACCCATGTAGTT-TATTAAAT--A-AACAT-ATTTGTGCGTAT  167
             |||||||| |||| |||| | | ||| |   || ||||  |    || |||| | |||||
Sbjct  661   ATGTATAATTAATATATATCAACGTATTCGAATCAAATGGATTTAATGATTTTTTCGTAT  720

Query  168   CCAATGCGTTTATCTATTGTTATTACTA-T--TA-T--TATTGTTACTGCTATATCACTG  221
               ||| |||||||||||||||||||||| |  || |  |||| ||| ||| || ||||||
Sbjct  721   TTAATACGTTTATCTATTGTTATTACTATTACTATTACTATTATTATTGCCATCTCACTG  780

I inquired with NCBI about a command for BLAST+ (neé StandALone BLAST) to have the aligment break at different increments or not at all. Like this:

Query  1     TTATTTTTCTTGATAGAATTAATTCTAATATTAGCACATTAAAAAATACTAAGTC-AAATTGTAATATTTCATTTGATATTGTATGCATACAATTTT-ATC---T--TACCTTTAAGAAT 113
             ||||||| ||||||||  |||||| |||||||| |||||||||||||| |||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||  ||||||||||||||||| |||   |  ||||||||| |||
Sbjct  542   TTATTTTGCTTGATAGCGTTAATTATAATATTACCACATTAAAAAATATTAAGTCAAAATTGTAATATTTCATTTGAT-CTGTATGCATACAATTTTAATCTTATCATACCTTTAATAAT  660

They forwarded the request on to the development team, but don't have that functionality at the time in BLAST+. I was hoping someone might have had the same thought and wrote a little script to reformat these alignments?

Thanks!

[gringer]

Use a different output format (ASN, CSV, or XML). The default text-based format is only meant to be for viewing, not data manipulation, and can change without notice.

[lindenb]

Save your blast result as XML and process it with a XSLT stylesheet.

Examples:

* http://www.biostars.org/p/6635/

* http://www.biostars.org/p/85258/