Bio::Tools::Blast(3)

NAME
Bio::Tools::Blast - Bioperl BLAST sequence analysis object

SYNOPSIS

  Parsing Blast reports
Parse an existing Blast report from file:

    use Bio::Tools::Blast;

    $blastObj = Bio::Tools::Blast->new( -file   => '/tmp/blast.out',
                                        -parse  => 1,
                                        -signif => '1e-10',
                                        );

Parse an existing Blast report from STDIN:

    $blastObj = Bio::Tools::Blast->new( -parse  => 1,
                                        -signif => '1e-10',
                                        );

Then send a Blast report to your script via STDIN.

Full parameters for parsing Blast reports.

 %blastParam = (
                -run             => \%runParam,
                -file            => '',
                -parse           => 1,
                -signif          => 1e-5,
                -filt_func       => \&my_filter,
                -min_len         => 15,
                -check_all_hits  => 0,
                -strict          => 0,
                -stats           => 1,
                -best            => 0,
                -share           => 0,
                -exec_func       => \&process_blast,
                -save_array      => \@blast_objs,  # not used if -exce_func defined.
               );

See parse() for a description of parameters and see USAGE for more examples including how to parse streams containing multiple Blast reports "Using the Static $Blast Object".

See "Memory Usage Issues" for information about how to make Blast parsing be more memory efficient.

  Running Blast reports
Run a new Blast2 at NCBI and then parse it:

    %runParam = (
                  -method   => 'remote',
                  -prog     => 'blastp',
                  -database => 'swissprot',
                  -seqs     => [ $seq ],  # Bio::Seq.pm objects.
                  );

    $blastObj = Bio::Tools::Blast->new( -run     => \%runParam,
                                        -parse   => 1,
                                        -signif  => '1e-10',
                                        -strict  => 1,
                                        );

Full parameters for running Blasts at NCBI using Webblast.pm:

 %runParam = (
              -method   => 'remote',
              -prog     => 'blastp',
              -version  => 2,      # BLAST2
              -database =>'swissprot',
              -html     => 0,
              -seqs     => [ $seqObject ],  # Bio::Seq.pm object(s)
              -descr    => 250,
              -align    => 250,
              -expect   => 10,
              -gap      => 'on',
              -matrix   => 'PAM250',
              -email    => undef,  # don't send report via e-mail if parsing.
              -filter   => undef,  # use default
              -gap_c    => undef,  # use default
              -gap_e    => undef,  # use default
              -word     => undef,  # use default
              -min_len  => undef,  # use default
              );

See run() and USAGE for more information about running Blasts.

  HTML-formatting Blast reports
Print an HTML-formatted version of a Blast report:

    use Bio::Tools::Blast qw(:obj);

    $Blast->to_html($filename);
    $Blast->to_html(-file   => $filename,
                    -header => "<H1>Blast Results</H1>");
    $Blast->to_html(-file   => $filename,
                    -out    => \@array);  # store output
    $Blast->to_html();  # use STDIN

Results are sent directly to STDOUT unless an "-out => array_ref" parameter is supplied. See to_html() for details.

INSTALLATION
This module is included with the central Bioperl distribution:

   http://bio.perl.org/Core/Latest
   ftp://bio.perl.org/pub/DIST

Follow the installation instructions included in the README file.

DESCRIPTION
The Bio::Tools::Blast.pm module encapsulates data and methods for running, parsing, and analyzing pre-existing BLAST reports. This module defines an application programming interface (API) for working with Blast reports. A Blast object is constructed from raw Blast output and encapsulates the Blast results which can then be accessed via the interface defined by the Blast object.

The ways in which researchers use Blast data are many and varied. This module attempts to be general and flexible enough to accommodate different uses. The Blast module API is still at an early stage of evolution and I expect it to continue to evolve as new uses for Blast data are developed. Your FEEDBACK is welcome.

FEATURES:

* Supports NCBI Blast1.x, Blast2.x, and WashU-Blast2.x, gapped and ungapped.
    Can parse HTML-formatted as well as non-HTML-formatted reports.

* Launch new Blast analyses remotely or locally.
    Blast objects can be constructed directly from the results of the run. See run().

* Construct Blast objects from pre-existing files or from a new run.
    Build a Blast object from a single file or build multiple Blast objects from an input stream containing multiple reports. See parse().

* Add hypertext links from a BLAST report.
    See to_html().

* Generate sequence and sequence alignment objects from HSP sequences.
    If you have Bio::Seq.pm and Bio::UnivAln.pm installed on your system, they can be used for working with high-scoring segment pair (HSP) sequences in the Blast alignment. (A new version of Bio::Seq.pm is included in the distribution, see INSTALLATION ). For more information about them, see:

        http://bio.perl.org/Projects/Sequence/
        http://bio.perl.org/Projects/SeqAlign/

A variety of different data can be extracted from the Blast report by querying the Blast.pm object. Some basic examples are given in the USAGE section. For some working scripts, see the links provided in the the DEMO SCRIPTS section section.

As a part of the incipient Bioperl framework, the Bio::Tools::Blast.pm module inherits from Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm, which provides some generic functionality for biological sequence analysis. See the documentation for that module for details ("Links to related modules").

  The BLAST Program
BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) is a widely used algorithm for performing rapid sequence similarity searches between a single DNA or protein sequence and a large dataset of sequences. BLAST analyses are typically performed by dedicated remote servers, such as the ones at the NCBI. Individual groups may also run the program on local machines.

The Blast family includes 5 different programs:

              Query Seq        Database
             ------------     ----------
 blastp  --  protein          protein
 blastn  --  nucleotide       nucleotide
 blastx  --  nucleotide*      protein
 tblastn --  protein          nucleotide*
 tblastx --  nucleotide*      nucleotide*

            * = dynamically translated in all reading frames, both strands

See "References & Information about the BLAST program".

  Versions Supported
BLAST reports generated by different application front ends are similar but not exactly the same. Blast reports are not intended to be exchange formats, making parsing software susceptible to obsolescence. This module aims to support BLAST reports generated by different implementations:

  Implementation    Latest version tested
  --------------    --------------------
  NCBI Blast1       1.4.11   [24-Nov-97]
  NCBI Blast2       2.0.8    [Jan-5-1999]
  WashU-BLAST2      2.0a19MP [05-Feb-1998]
  GCG               1.4.8    [1-Feb-95]

Support for both gapped and ungapped versions is included. Currently, there is only rudimentary support for PSI-BLAST in that these reports can be parsed but there is no special treatment of separate iteration rounds (they are all merged together).

  References & Information about the BLAST program
WEBSITES:

   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/                 - Homepage at NCBI
   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/BLAST/blast_help.html  - Help manual
   http://blast.wustl.edu/                            - WashU-Blast2

PUBLICATIONS: (with PubMed links)

     Altschul S.F., Gish W., Miller W., Myers E.W., Lipman D.J. (1990).
     "Basic local alignment search tool", J Mol Biol 215: 403-410.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=2231712&form=6&db=m&Dopt=r

     Altschul, Stephen F., Thomas L. Madden, Alejandro A. Schaffer,
     Jinghui Zhang, Zheng Zhang, Webb Miller, and David J. Lipman (1997).
     "Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST: a new generation of protein database
     search programs", Nucleic Acids Res. 25:3389-3402.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=9254694&form=6&db=m&Dopt=r

     Karlin, Samuel and Stephen F. Altschul (1990).  Methods  for
     assessing the statistical significance of molecular sequence
     features by using general scoring schemes. Proc. Natl. Acad.
     Sci. USA 87:2264-68.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=2315319&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b

     Karlin, Samuel and Stephen F. Altschul (1993).  Applications
     and statistics for multiple high-scoring segments in molecu-
     lar sequences. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 90:5873-7.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=8390686&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b

USAGE

  Creating Blast objects
A Blast object can be constructed from the contents of a Blast report using a set of named parameters that specify significance criteria for parsing. The report data can be read in from an existing file specified with the "-file => 'filename'" parameter or from a STDIN stream containing potentially multiple Blast reports. If the "-file" parameter does not contain a valid filename, STDIN will be used. Separate Blast objects will be created for each report in the stream.

To parse the report, you must include a "-parse => 1" parameter in addition to any other parsing parameters See parse() for a full description of parsing parameters. To run a new report and then parse it, include a "-run => \%runParams" parameter containing a reference to a hash that hold the parameters required by the run() method.

The constructor for Blast objects is inherited from Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm. See the _initialize() method of that package for general information relevant to creating Blast objects. (The new() method, inherited from Bio::Root::Object.pm, calls _initialize(). See "Links to related modules").

The Blast object can read compressed (gzipped) Blast report files. Compression/decompression uses the gzip or compress programs that are standard on Unix systems and should not require special configuration. If you can't or don't want to use gzip as the file compression tool, either pre-uncompress your files before parsing with this module or modify Bio::Root::Utilities.pm to your liking.

Blast objects can be generated either by direct instantiation as in:

 use Bio::Tools::Blast;
 $blast = new Bio::Tools::Blast (%parameters);

  Using the Static $Blast Object
 use Bio::Tools::Blast qw(:obj);

This exports the static $Blast object into your namespace. "Static" refers to the fact that it has class scope and there is one of these created when you use this module. The static $Blast object is basically an empty object that is provided for convenience and is also used for various internal chores.

It is exported by this module and can be used for parsing and running reports as well as HTML-formatting without having to first create an empty Blast object.

Using the static $Blast object for parsing a STDIN stream of Blast reports:

    use Bio::Tools::Blast qw(:obj);

    sub process_blast {
        my $blastObj = shift;
        print $blastObj->table();
        $blastObj->destroy;
    }

    $Blast->parse( -parse     => 1,
                   -signif    => '1e-10',
                   -exec_func => \&process_blast,
                   );

Then pipe a stream of Blast reports into your script via STDIN. For each Blast report extracted from the input stream, the parser will generate a new Blast object and pass it to the function specified by "-exec_func". The destroy() call tells Perl to free the memory associated with the object, important if you are crunching through many reports. This method is inherited from Bio::Root::Object.pm (see "Links to related modules"). See parse() for a full description of parameters and the DEMO SCRIPTS section for additional examples.

  Running Blasts
To run a Blast, create a new Blast object with a "-run => \%runParams" parameter. Remote Blasts are performed by including a "-method => 'remote'" parameter; local Blasts are performed by including a "-method => 'local'" parameter. See "Running Blast reports" as well as the the DEMO SCRIPTS section for examples. Note that running local Blasts is not yet supported, see below.

Note that the "-seqs => [ $seqs ]" run parameter must contain a reference to an array of Bio::Seq.pm objects ("Links to related modules"). Encapsulating the sequence in an object makes sequence information much easier to handle as it can be supplied in a variety of formats. Bio::Seq.pm is included with this distribution (INSTALLATION ).

Remote Blasts are implemented using the Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::Webblast.pm module. Local Blasts require that you customize the Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::LocalBlast.pm module. The version of LocalBlast.pm included with this distribution provides the basic framework for running local Blasts. See "Links to related modules".

  Significance screening
A "-signif" parameter can be used to screen out all hits with P-values (or Expect values) above a certain cutoff. For example, to exclude all hits with Expect values above 1.0e-10: "-signif => 1e-10". Providing a "-signif" cutoff can speed up processing tremendously, since only a small fraction of the report need be parsed. This is because the "-signif" value is used to screen hits based on the data in the "Description" section of the Blast report:

For NCBI BLAST2 reports:

                                                                     Score     E
  Sequences producing significant alignments:                        (bits)  Value

  sp|P31376|YAB1_YEAST  HYPOTHETICAL 74.1 KD PROTEIN IN CYS3-MDM10...   957  0.0

For BLAST1 or WashU-BLAST2 reports:

                                                                       Smallest
                                                                         Sum
                                                                High  Probability
  Sequences producing High-scoring Segment Pairs:              Score  P(N)      N

  PDB:3PRK_E Proteinase K complexed with inhibitor ...........   504  1.8e-50   1

Thus, the "-signif" parameter will screen based on Expect values for BLAST2 reports and based on P-values for BLAST1/WashU-BLAST2 reports.

To screen based on other criteria, you can supply a "-filt_func" parameter containing a function reference that takes a Bio::Tools::Sbjct.pm object as an argument and returns a boolean, true if the hit is to be screened out. See example below for "Screening hits using arbitrary criteria".

  Get the best hit.
     $hit = $blastObj->hit;

A "hit" is contained by a Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm object.

  Get the P-value or Expect value of the most significant hit.
     $p = $blastObj->lowest_p;
     $e = $blastObj->lowest_expect;

Alternatively:

     $p = $blastObj->hit->p;
     $e = $blastObj->hit->expect;

Note that P-values are not reported in NCBI Blast2 reports.

  Iterate through all the hits
     foreach $hit ($blastObj->hits) {
         printf "%s\t %.1e\t %d\t %.2f\t %d\n",
                          $hit->name, $hit->expect, $hit->num_hsps,
                          $hit->frac_identical, $hit->gaps;
     }

Refer to the documentation for Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm for other ways to work with hit objects ("Links to related modules").

  Screening hits using arbitrary criteria
    sub filter { $hit=shift;
                 return ($hit->gaps == 0 and
                         $hit->frac_conserved > 0.5); }

     $blastObj = Bio::Tools::Blast->new( -file      => '/tmp/blast.out',
                                         -parse     => 1,
                                         -filt_func => \&filter );

While the Blast object is parsing the report, each hit checked by calling &filter($hit). All hits that generate false return values from &filter are screened out and will not be added to the Blast object. Note that the Blast object will normally stop parsing the report after the first non-significant hit or the first hit that does not pass the filter function. To force the Blast object to check all hits, include a "-check_all_hits => 1" parameter. Refer to the documentation for Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm for other ways to work with hit objects.

Hit start, end coordinates.
          print $sbjct->start('query');
          print $sbjct->end('sbjct');

    In array context, you can get information for both query and sbjct with one call:

          ($qstart, $sstart) = $sbjct->start();
          ($qend, $send)     = $sbjct->end();

    For important information regarding coordinate information, see the "HSP start, end, and strand" section below. Also check out documentation for the start and end methods in Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm, which explains what happens if there is more than one HSP.

  Working with HSPs

Iterate through all the HSPs of every hit
         foreach $hit ($blastObj->hits) {
             foreach $hsp ($hit->hsps) {
             printf "%.1e\t %d\t %.1f\t %.2f\t %.2f\t %d\t %d\n",
                              $hsp->expect, $hsp->score, $hsp->bits,
                              $hsp->frac_identical, $hsp->frac_conserved,
                              $hsp->gaps('query'), $hsp->gaps('sbjct');
         }

    Refer to the documentation for Bio::Tools::Blast::HSP.pm for other ways to work with hit objects ("Links to related modules").

Extract HSP sequence data as strings or sequence objects
    Get the first HSP of the first hit and the sequences of the query and sbjct as strings.

          $hsp = $blast_obj->hit->hsp;
          $query_seq = $hsp->seq_str('query');
          $hsp_seq = $hsp->seq_str('sbjct');

    Get the indices of identical and conserved positions in the HSP query seq.

          @query_iden_indices = $hsp->seq_inds('query', 'identical');
          @query_cons_indices = $hsp->seq_inds('query', 'conserved');

    Similarly for the sbjct sequence.

          @sbjct_iden_indices = $hsp->seq_inds('sbjct', 'identical');
          @sbjct_cons_indices = $hsp->seq_inds('sbjct', 'conserved');

          print "Query in Fasta format:\n", $hsp->seq('query')->layout('fasta');
          print "Sbjct in Fasta format:\n", $hsp->seq('sbjct')->layout('fasta');

    See the Bio::Seq.pm package for more information about using these sequence objects ("Links to related modules").

Create sequence alignment objects using HSP sequences
          $aln = $hsp->get_aln;
          print " consensus:\n", $aln->consensus();
          print $hsp->get_aln->layout('fasta');

          $ENV{READSEQ_DIR} = '/home/users/sac/bin/solaris';
          $ENV{READSEQ} = 'readseq';
          print $hsp->get_aln->layout('msf');

    MSF formated layout requires Don Gilbert's ReadSeq program (not included). See the Bio::UnivAln.pm for more information about using these alignment objects ("Links to related modules")'.

HSP start, end, and strand
    To facilitate HSP processing, endpoint data for each HSP sequence are normalized so that start is always less than end. This affects TBLASTN and TBLASTX HSPs on the reverse complement or "Minus" strand.

    Some examples of obtaining start, end coordinates for HSP objects:

          print $hsp->start('query');
          print $hsp->end('sbjct');
          ($qstart, $sstart) = $hsp->start();
          ($qend, $send) = $hsp->end();

    Strandedness of the HSP can be assessed using the strand() method on the HSP object:

          print $hsp->strand('query');
          print $hsp->strand('sbjct');

    These will return 'Minus' or 'Plus'. Or, to get strand information for both query and sbjct with a single call:

          ($qstrand, $sstrand) = $hsp->strand();

  Report Generation

Generate a tab-delimited table of all results.
         print $blastObj->table;
         print $blastObj->table(0);   # don't include hit descriptions.
         print $blastObj->table_tiled;

    The table() method returns data for each HSP of each hit listed one per line. The table_tiled() method returns data for each hit, i.e., Sbjct listed one per line; data from multiple HSPs are combined after tiling to reduce overlaps. See Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm for more information about HSP tiling. These methods generate stereotypical, tab-delimited data for each hit of the Blast report. The output is suitable for importation into spreadsheets or database tables. Feel free to roll your own table function if you need a custom table.

    For either table method, descriptions of each hit can be included if a single, true argument is supplied (e.g., $blastObj->table(1)). The description will be added as the last field. This will significantly increase the size of the table. Labels for the table columns can be obtained with table_labels() and table_labels_tiled().

Print a summary of the Blast report
         $blastObj->display();
         $blastObj->display(-show=>'hits');

    display() prints various statistics extracted from the Blast report such as database name, database size, matrix used, etc. The "display(-show=>'hits')" call prints a non-tab-delimited table attempting to line the data up into more readable columns. The output generated is similar to table_tiled().

HTML-format an existing report
         use Bio::Tools::Blast qw(:obj);

         # Going straight from a non HTML report file to HTML output using
         # the static $Blast object exported by Bio::Tools::Blast.pm
         $Blast->to_html(-file   => '/usr/people/me/blast.output.txt',
                         -header => qq|<H1>BLASTP Results</H1><A HREF="home.html">Home</A>|
                         );

         # You can also use a specific Blast object created previously.
         $blastObj->to_html;

    to_html() will send HTML output, line-by-line, directly to STDOUT unless an "-out => array_ref" parameter is supplied (e.g., "-out => \@array"), in which case the HTML will be stored in @array, one line per array element. The direct outputting permits faster response time since Blast reports can be huge. The -header tag can contain a string containing any HTML that you want to appear at the top of the Blast report.

DEMO SCRIPTS
Sample Scripts are included in the central bioperl distribution in the 'examples/blast/' directory (see INSTALLATION ):

  Handy library for working with Bio::Tools::Blast.pm
   examples/blast/blast_config.pl

  Parsing Blast reports one at a time.
   examples/blast/parse_blast.pl
   examples/blast/parse_blast2.pl
   examples/blast/parse_positions.pl

  Parsing sets of Blast reports.
   examples/blast/parse_blast.pl
   examples/blast/parse_multi.pl

   B<Warning:> See note about L<Memory Usage Issues>.

  Running Blast analyses one at a time.
   examples/blast/run_blast_remote.pl

  Running Blast analyses given a set of sequences.
   examples/blast/blast_seq.pl

  HTML-formatting Blast reports.
   examples/blast/html.pl

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  Blast Modes
A BLAST object may be created using one of three different modes as defined by the Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm package (See "Links to related modules"):

 -- parse - Load a BLAST report and parse it, storing parsed data in
    Blast.pm object.
 -- run      - Run the BLAST program to generate a new report.
 -- read     - Load a BLAST report into the Blast object without parsing.

Run mode support has recently been added. The module Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::Webblast.pm is an modularized adaptation of the webblast script by Alex Dong Li:

   http://www.genet.sickkids.on.ca/bioinfo_resources/software.html#webblast

for running remote Blast analyses and saving the results locally. Run mode can be combined with a parse mode to generate a Blast report and then build the Blast object from the parsed results of this report (see run() and SYNOPSIS ).

In read mode, the BLAST report is read in by the Blast object but is not parsed. This could be used to internalize a Blast report but not parse it for results (e.g., generating HTML formatted output).

  Significant Hits
This module permits the screening of hits on the basis of user-specified criteria for significance. Currently, Blast reports can be screened based on:

   CRITERIA                            PARAMETER       VALUE
   ----------------------------------  ---------      ----------------
  1) the best Expect (or P) value      -signif        float or sci-notation
  2) the length of the query sequence  -min_length    integer
  3) arbitrary criteria                -filt_func     function reference

The parameters are used for construction of the BLAST object or when running the parse() method on the static $Blast object. The -SIGNIF value represents the number listed in the description section at the top of the Blast report. For Blast2, this is an Expect value, for Blast1 and WashU-Blast2, this is a P-value. The idea behind the "-filt_func" parameter is that the hit has to pass through a filter to be considered significant. Refer to the documentation for Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm for ways to work with hit objects.

Using a "-signif" parameter allows for the following:

Faster parsing.
    Each hit can be screened by examination of the description line alone without fully parsing the HSP alignment section.

Flexibility.
    The "-signif" tag provides a more semantic-free way to specify the value to be used as a basis for screening hits. Thus, "-signif" can be used for screening Blast1 or Blast2 reports. It is up to the user to understand whether "-signif" represents a P-value or an Expect value.

Any hit not meeting the significance criteria will not be added to the "hit list" of the BLAST object. Also, a BLAST object without any hits meeting the significance criteria will throw an exception during object construction (a fatal event).

  Statistical Parameters
There are numerous parameters which define the behavior of the BLAST program and which are useful for interpreting the search results. These parameters are extracted from the Blast report:

  filter  --  for masking out low-complexity sequences or short repeats
  matrix  --  name of the substitution scoring matrix (e.g., BLOSUM62)
  E       --  Expect filter (screens out frequent scores)
  S       --  Cutoff score for segment pairs
  W       --  Word length
  T       --  Threshold score for word pairs
  Lambda, --  Karlin-Altschul "sum" statistical parameters dependent on
   K, H        sequence composition.
  G       --  Gap creation penalty.
  E       --  Gap extension penalty.

These parameters are not always needed. Extraction may be turned off explicitly by including a "-stats => 0" parameter during object construction. Support for all statistical parameters is not complete.

For more about the meaning of parameters, check out the NCBI URLs given above.

  Module Organization
The modules that comprise this Bioperl Blast distribution are location in the Bio:: hierarchy as shown in the diagram below.

                            Bio/
                             |
               +--------------------------+
               |                          |
          Bio::Tools                  Bio::Root
               |                          |
    +----------------------+           Object.pm
    |          |           |
 SeqAnal.pm  Blast.pm    Blast/
                           |
            +---------+---------+------------+
            |         |         |            |
          Sbjct.pm   HSP.pm   HTML.pm       Run/
                                             |
                                       +------------+
                                       |            |
                                  Webblast.pm   LocalBlast.pm

Bio::Tools::Blast.pm is a concrete class that inherits from Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm and relies on other modules for parsing and managing BLAST data. Worth mentioning about this hierarchy is the lack of a "Parse.pm" module. Since parsing is considered central to the purpose of the Bioperl Blast module (and Bioperl in general), it seems somewhat unnatural to segregate out all parsing code. This segregation could also lead to inefficiencies and harder to maintain code. I consider this issue still open for debate.

Bio::Tools::Blast.pm, Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm, and Bio::Tools::Blast::HSP.pm are mostly dedicated to parsing and all can be used to instantiate objects. Blast.pm is the main "command and control" module, inheriting some basic behaviors from SeqAnal.pm (things that are not specific to Blast per se).

Bio::Tools::Blast::HTML.pm contains functions dedicated to generating HTML-formatted Blast reports and does not generate objects.

  Running Blasts: Details
Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::Webblast.pm contains a set of functions for running Blast analyses at a remote server and also does not instantiate objects. It uses a helper script called postclient.pl, located in the Run directory. The proposed LocalBlast.pm module would be used for running Blast reports on local machines and thus would be customizable for different sites. It would operate in a parallel fashion to Webblast.pm (i.e., being a collection of functions, taking in sequence objects or files, returning result files).

The Run modules are considered experimental. In particular, Webblast.pm catures an HTML-formatted version of the Blast report from the NCBI server and strips out the HTML in preparation for parsing. A more direct approach would be to capture the Blast results directly from the server using an interface to the NCBI toolkit. This approach was recently proposed on the Bioperl mailing list: http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/mailinglists/BCD/vsns-bcd-perl/9805/0000.html

  Memory Usage Issues
Parsing large numbers of Blast reports (a few thousand or so) with Bio::Tools::Blast.pm may lead to unacceptable memory usage situations. This is somewhat dependent of the size and complexity of the reports.

While this problem is under investigation, here are some workarounds that fix the memory usage problem:

1 Don't specify a -signif criterion when calling parse().
    The "-signif" value is used for imposing a upper limit to the expect- or P-value for Blast hits to be parsed. For reasons that are still under investigation, specifying a value for "-signif" in the parse() method prevents Blast objects from being fully garbage collected. When using the parse_blast.pl or parse_multi.pl scripts in "examples/blast/" of the bioperl distribution), don't supply a "-signif" command-line parameter.

2 If you want to impose a -signif criterion, put it inside a -filt_func.
    For the parse() method, a -signif => 1e-5 parameter is equivalent to using a filter function parameter of

     -filt_func => sub { my $hit = shift; return $hit->signif <= 1e-5; }

    Using the examples/blast/parse_multi.pl script, you can supply a command-line argument of

     -filt_func '$hit->signif <= 1e-5'

    For more information, see parse() and the section "Screening hits using arbitrary criteria".

TODO

* Develop a functional, prototype Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::LocalBlast.pm module.
* Add support for PSI-BLAST and PHI-BLAST
* Parse histogram of expectations and retrieve gif image in Blast report (if present).
* Further investigate memory leak that occurs when parsing Blast streams whe supplying a -signif parameter to parse().
* Access Blast results directly from the NCBI server using a Perl interface to the NCBI toolkit or XML formated Blast reports (when available).
* Further exploit Bio::UnivAln.pm and multiple-sequence alignment programs using HSP sequence data. Some of this may best go into a separate, dedicated module or script as opposed to burdening Blast.pm, Sbjct.pm, and HSP.pm with additional functionality that is not always required.
* Add an example script for parsing Blast reports containing HTML formatting.

VERSION
Bio::Tools::Blast.pm, 0.09

FEEDBACK

  Mailing Lists
User feedback is an integral part of the evolution of this and other Bioperl modules. Send your comments and suggestions preferably to one of the Bioperl mailing lists. Your participation is much appreciated.

    bioperl-l@bioperl.org             - General discussion
    http://bio.perl.org/MailList.html - About the mailing lists

  Reporting Bugs
Report bugs to the Bioperl bug tracking system to help us keep track the bugs and their resolution. Bug reports can be submitted via email or the web:

    bioperl-bugs@bio.perl.org
    http://bugzilla.bioperl.org/

AUTHOR
Steve Chervitz, sac@bioperl.org

See the FEEDBACK section for where to send bug reports and comments.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This module was developed under the auspices of the Saccharomyces Genome Database:
    http://genome-www.stanford.edu/Saccharomyces

Other contributors include: Alex Dong Li (webblast), Chris Dagdigian (Seq.pm), Steve Brenner (Seq.pm), Georg Fuellen (Seq.pm, UnivAln.pm), and untold others who have offered comments (noted in the Bio/Tools/Blast/CHANGES file of the distribution).

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1996-98 Steve Chervitz. All Rights Reserved. This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO
 Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm                  - Sequence analysis object base class.
 Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm             - Blast hit object.
 Bio::Tools::Blast::HSP.pm               - Blast HSP object.
 Bio::Tools::Blast::HTML.pm              - Blast HTML-formating utility class.
 Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::Webblast.pm     - Utility module for running Blasts remotely.
 Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::LocalBlast.pm   - Utility module for running Blasts locally.
 Bio::Seq.pm                             - Biosequence object
 Bio::UnivAln.pm                         - Biosequence alignment object.
 Bio::Root::Object.pm                    - Proposed base class for all Bioperl objects.

  Links to related modules
 Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm
      http://bio.perl.org/Core/POD/Bio/Tools/SeqAnal.html

 Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm
      http://bio.perl.org/Core/POD/Bio/Tools/Blast/Sbjct.html

 Bio::Tools::Blast::HSP.pm
      http://bio.perl.org/Core/POD/Bio/Tools/Blast/HSP.html

 Bio::Tools::Blast::HTML.pm
      http://bio.perl.org/Core/POD/Bio/Tools/Blast/HTML.html

 Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::Webblast.pm
      http://bio.perl.org/Core/POD/Bio/Tools/Blast/Run/Webblast.html

 Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::LocalBlast.pm
      http://bio.perl.org/Core/POD/Bio/Tools/Blast/Run/LocalBlast.html

 Bio::Seq.pm
      http://bio.perl.org/Core/POD/Seq.html

 Bio::UnivAln.pm
      http://bio.perl.org/Projects/SeqAlign/
      Europe:  http://www.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/bcd/Perl/Bio/#univaln

 Bio::Root::Object.pm
      http://bio.perl.org/Core/POD/Root/Object.html

 http://bio.perl.org/Projects/modules.html  - Online module documentation
 http://bio.perl.org/Projects/Blast/        - Bioperl Blast Project
 http://bio.perl.org/                       - Bioperl Project Homepage

"References & Information about the BLAST program".

KNOWN BUGS
There is a memory leak that occurs when parsing parsing streams containing large numbers of Blast reports (a few thousand or so) and specifying a -signif parameter to the parse() method. For a workaround, see "Memory Usage Issues".

Not sharing statistical parameters between different Blast objects when parsing a multi-report stream has not been completely tested and may be a little buggy.

Documentation inconsistencies or inaccuracies may exist since this module underwend a fair bit of re-working going from 0.75 to 0.80 (corresponds to versions 0.04.4 to 0.05 of the bioperl distribution).

APPENDIX
Methods beginning with a leading underscore are considered private and are intended for internal use by this module. They are not considered part of the public interface and are described here for documentation purposes only.

  run
 Usage     : $object->run( %named_parameters )
 Purpose   : Run a local or remote Blast analysis on one or more sequences.
 Returns   : String containing name of Blast output file if a single Blast
           : is run.
           :  -- OR --
           : List of Blast objects if multiple Blasts are being run as a group.
 Argument  : Named parameters:  (PARAMETER TAGS CAN BE UPPER OR LOWER CASE).
           :    -METHOD  => 'local' or 'remote' (default = remote),
           :    -PARSE   => boolean, (true if the results are to be parsed after the run)
           :    -STRICT  => boolean, the strict mode to use for the resulting Blast objects.
           :  ADDITIONAL PARAMETERS:
           :      See methods _run_remote() and _run_local() for required
           :      parameters necessary for running the blast report.
 Throws    : Exception if no Blast output file was obtained.
 Comments  : This method is called automatically during construction of a
           : Blast.pm object when run parameters are sent to the constructor:
           :  $blastObj = new Bio::Tools::Blast (-RUN =>\%runParam,
           :                                     %parseParam );
           :
           : The specific run methods (local or remote) called by run()
           : must return a list containing  the file name(s) with the Blast output.
           :
           : The run() method can perform single or multiple Blast runs
           : (analogous to the way parse() works) depending on how many
           : sequences are submitted. However, the running of multiple
           : Blasts is probably better handled at the script level. See notes in
           : the "TODO" section below.
           :
           : As for what to do with the Blast result file, that decision is
           : left for the user who can direct the Blast object to delete, compress,
           : or leave it alone.
           :
           : This method does not worry about load balancing, which
           : is probably best handled at the server level.
           :
 TODO:     : Support for running+parsing multiple Blast analyses with a
           : single run() call is incomplete. One can generate multiple
           : reports by placing more than one sequence object in the -seqs
           : reference parameter. This saves some overhead in the code
           : that executes the Blasts since all options are configured once.
           : (This is analogous to parsing using the static $Blast object
           : see parse() and _parse_stream()).
           :
           : The trouble is that Blast objects for all runs are constructed,
           : parsed (if necessary), and then returned as a group
           : This can require lots of memory when run+parsing many Blasts
           : but should be fine if you just want to run a bunch Blasts.
           :
           : For now, when running+parsing Blasts, stick to running one
           : Blast at a time, building the Blast object with the results
           : of that report, and processing as necessary.
           :
           : Support for running PSI-Blast is not complete.

See Also: _run_remote(), _run_local(), parse()

  _run_remote
 Usage     : n/a; internal method called by run()
           : $object->_run_remote( %named_parameters )
 Purpose   : Run Blast on a remote server.
 Argument  : Named parameters:
           :   See documentation for function &blast_remote in
           :   Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::Webblast.pm for description
           :   of parameters.
 Comments  : This method requires the Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::Webblast.pm
           : which conforms to this minimal API:
           :    * export a method called &blast_remote that accepts a
           :      Bio::Tools::Blast.pm object + named parameters
           :      (specified in the Webblast.pm module).
           :    * return a list of names of files containing the raw Blast reports.
           :      (When building a Blast object, this list would contain a
           :       single file from which the Blast object is to be constructed).

See Also : run(), _run_local(), Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::Webblast.pm::blast_remote(), "Links to related modules"

  _run_local
 Usage     : n/a; internal method called by run()
           : $object->_run_local(%named_parameters)
 Purpose   : Run Blast on a local machine.
 Argument  : Named parameters:
           :   See documentation for function &blast_local in
           :   Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::LocalBlast.pm for description
           :   of parameters.
 Comments  : This method requires the Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::LocalBlast.pm
           : module which should be customized for your site. This module would
           : contain all the commands, paths, environment variables, and other
           : data necessary to run Blast commands on a local machine, but should
           : not contain any semantics for specific query sequences.
           :
           : LocalBlast.pm should also conform to this minimal API:
           :    * export a method called &blast_local that accepts a
           :       Bio::Tools::Blast.pm object + named parameters
           :      (specified in the LocalBlast.pm module).
           :    * return a list of names of files containing the raw Blast reports.
           :      (When building a Blast object, this list would contain a
           :       single file from which the Blast object is to be constructed).

See Also : run(), _run_remote(), Bio::Tools::Blast::Run::LocalBlast::blast_local(), "Links to related modules"

  db_remote
 Usage     : @dbs = $Blast->db_remote( [seq_type] );
 Purpose   : Get a list of available sequence databases for remote Blast analysis.
 Returns   : Array of strings
 Argument  : seq_type = 'p' or 'n'
           :  'p' = Gets databases for peptide searches  (default)
           :  'n' = Gets databases for nucleotide searches
 Throws    : n/a
 Comments  : Peptide databases are a subset of the nucleotide databases.
           : It is convenient to call this method on the static $Blast object
           : as shown in Usage.

See Also : db_local()

  db_local
 Usage     : @dbs = $Blast->db_local( [seq_type] );
 Purpose   : Get a list of available sequence databases for local Blast analysis.
 Returns   : Array of strings
 Argument  : seq_type = 'p' or 'n'
           :  'p' = Gets databases for peptide searches  (default)
           :  'n' = Gets databases for nucleotide searches
 Throws    : n/a
 Comments  : Peptide databases are a subset of the nucleotide databases.
           : It is convenient to call this method on the static $Blast object.
             as shown in Usage.

See Also : db_remote()

  parse
 Usage     : $blast_object->parse( %named_parameters )
 Purpose   : Parse a Blast report from a file or STDIN.
           :   * Parses a raw BLAST data, populating Blast object with report data.
           :   * Sets the significance cutoff.
           :   * Extracts statistical parameters about the BLAST run.
           :   * Handles both single files and streams containing multiple reports.
 Returns   : integer (number of Blast reports parsed)
 Argument  : <named parameters>:  (PARAMETER TAGS CAN BE UPPER OR LOWER CASE).
           : -FILE       => string (name of file containing raw Blast output.
           :                         Optional. If a valid file is not supplied,
           :                         STDIN will be used).
           : -SIGNIF     => number (float or scientific notation number to be used
           :                         as a P- or Expect value cutoff;
           :                         default =  $DEFAULT_SIGNIF (999)).
           : -FILT_FUNC  => func_ref (reference to a function to be used for
           :                          filtering out hits based on arbitrary criteria.
           :                          This function should take a
           :                          Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm object as its first
           :                          argument and return a boolean value,
           :                          true if the hit should be filtered out).
           :                          Sample filter function:
           :                          -FILT_FUNC => sub { $hit = shift;
           :                                              $hit->gaps == 0; },
           : -CHECK_ALL_HITS => boolean (check all hits for significance against
           :                             significance criteria.  Default = false.
           :                             If false, stops processing hits after the first
           :                             non-significant hit or the first hit that fails
           :                             the filt_func call. This speeds parsing,
           :                             taking advantage of the fact that the hits
           :                             are processed in the order they are ranked.)
           : -MIN_LEN     => integer (to be used as a minimum query sequence length
           :                          sequences below this length will not be processed).
           :                          default = no minimum length).
           : -STATS       => boolean (collect stats for report: matrix, filters, etc.
           :                          default = false).
           : -BEST        => boolean (only process the best hit of each report;
           :                          default = false).
           : -OVERLAP     => integer (the amount of overlap to permit between
           :                          adjacent HSPs when tiling HSPs,
           :                          Default = $MAX_HSP_OVERLAP (2))
           :
           : PARAMETERS USED WHEN PARSING MULTI-REPORT STREAMS:
           : --------------------------------------------------
           : -SHARE       => boolean (set this to true if all reports in stream
           :                          share the same stats. Default = true)
           :                          Must be set to false when parsing both Blast1 and
           :                          Blast2 reports in the same run or if you need
           :                          statistical params for each report, Lambda, K, H).
           : -STRICT      => boolean (use strict mode for all Blast objects created.
           :                          Increases sensitivity to errors. For single
           :                          Blasts, this is parameter is sent to new().)
           : -EXEC_FUNC   => func_ref (reference to a function for processing each
           :                           Blast object after it is parsed. Should accept a
           :                           Blast object as its sole argument. Return value
           :                           is ignored. If an -EXEC_FUNC parameter is supplied,
           :                           the -SAVE_ARRAY parameter will be ignored.)
           : -SAVE_ARRAY  =>array_ref, (reference to an array for storing all
           :                            Blast objects as they are created.
           :                            Experimental. Not recommended.)
           : -SIGNIF_FMT  => boolean   String of 'exp' or 'parts'. Sets the format
           :                           for reporting P/Expect values. 'exp' reports
           :                           only the exponent portion. 'parts' reports
           :                           them as a 2 element list. See signif_fmt()..
           :
 Throws    : Exception if BLAST report contains a FATAL: error.
           : Propagates any exception thrown by read().
           : Propagates any exception thrown by called parsing methods.
 Comments  : This method can be called either directly using the static $Blast object
           : or indirectly (by Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm) during constuction of an
           : individual Blast object.
           :
           : HTML-formatted reports can be parsed as well. No special flag is required
           : since it is detected automatically. The presence of HTML-formatting
           : will result in slower performace, however, since it must be removed
           : prior to parsing. Parsing HTML-formatted reports is highly
           : error prone and is generally not recommended.
           :
           : If one has an HTML report, do NOT remove the HTML from it by using the
           : "Save As" option of a web browser to save it as text. This renders the
           : report unparsable.
           : HTML-formatted reports can be parsed after running through the strip_html
           : function of Blast::HTML.pm as in:
           :    require Bio::Tools::Blast::HTML;
           :    Bio::Tools::Blast::HTML->import(&strip_html);
           :    &strip_html(\$data);
           :    # where data contains full contents of an HTML-formatted report.
           : TODO: write a demo script that does this.

See Also : _init_parse_params(), _parse_blast_stream(), overlap(), signif_fmt(), Bio::Root::Object::read(), Bio::Tools::Blast::HTML.pm::strip_html(), "Links to related modules"

  _init_parse_params
 Title   : _init_parse_params
 Usage   : n/a; called automatically by parse()
 Purpose : Initializes parameters used during parsing of Blast reports.
         : This is a static method used by the $Blast object.
         : Calls _set_signif().
 Example :
 Returns : n/a
 Args    : Args extracted by parse().

See Also: parse(), _set_signif()

  _set_signif
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically by _init_parse_params()
           : This is now a "static" method used only by $Blast.
           : _set_signif($signif, $min_len, $filt_func);
 Purpose   : Sets significance criteria for the BLAST object.
 Argument  : Obligatory three arguments:
           :   $signif = float or sci-notation number or undef
           :   $min_len = integer or undef
           :   $filt_func = function reference or undef
           :
           :   If $signif is undefined, a default value is set
           :   (see $DEFAULT_SIGNIF; min_length = not set).
 Throws    : Exception if significance value is defined but appears
           :   out of range or invalid.
           : Exception if $filt_func if defined and is not a func ref.
 Comments  : The significance of a BLAST report can be based on
           : the P (or Expect) value and/or the length of the query sequence.
           : P (or Expect) values GREATER than '_significance' are not significant.
           : Query sequence lengths LESS than '_min_length' are not significant.
           :
           : Hits can also be screened using arbitrary significance criteria
           : as discussed in the parse() method.
           :
           : If no $signif is defined, the '_significance' level is set to
           : $Bio::Tools::Blast::DEFAULT_SIGNIF (999).

See Also : signif(), min_length(), _init_parse_params(), parse()

  _parse_blast_stream
 Usage     : n/a. Internal method called by parse()
 Purpose   : Obtains the function to be used during parsing and calls read().
 Returns   : Integer (the number of blast reports read)
 Argument  : Named parameters  (forwarded from parse())
 Throws    : Propagates any exception thrown by _get_parse_blast_func() and read().

See Also : _get_parse_blast_func(), Bio::Root::Object::read()

  _get_parse_blast_func
 Usage     : n/a; internal method used by _parse_blast_stream()
           : $func_ref = $blast_object->_get_parse_blast_func()
 Purpose   : Generates a function ref to be used as a closure for parsing
           : raw data as it is being loaded by Bio::Root::IOManager::read().
 Returns   : Function reference (closure).
 Comments  : The the function reference contains a fair bit of logic
           : at present. It could perhaps be split up into separate
           : functions to make it more 'digestible'.

See Also : _parse_blast_stream()

  _report_errors
 Title   : _report_errors
 Usage   : n/a; Internal method called by _get_parse_blast_func().
 Purpose : Throw or warn about any errors encountered.
 Returns : n/a
 Args    : n/a
 Throws  : If all hits generated exceptions, raise exception
         :   (a fatal event for the Blast object.)
         : If some hits were okay but some were bad, generate a warning
         :   (a few bad applies should not spoil the bunch).
         :   This usually indicates a limiting B-value.
         : When the parsing code fails, it is either all or nothing.

  _parse_header
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically by the _get_parse_blast_func().
 Purpose   : Parses the header section of a BLAST report.
 Argument  : String containing the header+description section of a BLAST report.
 Throws    : Exception if description data cannot be parsed properly.
           : Exception if there is a 'FATAL' error in the Blast report.
           : Warning if there is a 'WARNING' in the Blast report.
           : Warning if there are no significant hits.
 Comments  : Description section contains a single line for each hit listing
           : the seq id, description, score, Expect or P-value, etc.

See Also : _get_parse_blast_func()

  _parse_alignment
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically by the _get_parse_blast_func().
 Purpose   : Parses a single alignment section of a BLAST report.
 Argument  : String containing the alignment section.
 Throws    : n/a; All errors are trapped while parsing the hit data
           : and are processed as a group when the report is
           : completely processed (See _report_errors()).
           :
 Comments  : Alignment section contains all HSPs for a hit.
           : Requires Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm.
           : Optionally calls a filter function to screen the hit on arbitrary
           : criteria. If the filter function returns true for a given hit,
           : that hit will be skipped.
           :
           : If the Blast object was created with -check_all_hits set to true,
           : all hits will be checked for significance and processed if necessary.
           : If this field is false, the parsing will stop after the first
           : non-significant hit.
           : See parse() for description of parsing parameters.

See Also : parse(), _get_parse_blast_func(), _report_errors(), Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct(), "Links to related modules"

  _parse_footer
 Usage     : n/a; internal function. called by _parse_alignment()
 Purpose   : Extracts statistical and other parameters from the BLAST report.
           : Sets various key elements such as the program and version,
           : gapping, and the layout for the report (blast1 or blast2).
 Argument  : Data to be parsed.
 Returns   : String containing an alignment section for processing by
           : _parse_alignment().
 Throws    : Exception if cannot find the parameters section of report.
           : Warning if cannot determine if gapping was used.
           : Warning if cannot determine the scoring matrix used.
 Comments  : This method must always get called, even if the -STATS
           : parse() parameter is false. The reason is that the layout
           : of the report  and the presence of gapping must always be set.
           : The determination whether to set additional stats is made
           : by methods called by _parse_footer().

See Also : parse(), _parse_alignment(), _set_database()

  _set_blast2_stats
 Usage     : n/a; internal function called by _parse_footer()
 Purpose   : Extracts statistical and other parameters from BLAST2 report footer.
           : Stats collected: database release, gapping,
           : posted date, matrix used, filter used, Karlin-Altschul parameters,
           : E, S, T, X, W.
 Throws    : Exception if cannot get "Parameters" section of Blast report.

See Also : parse(), _parse_footer(), _set_database(), Bio::Tools::SeqAnal::set_date(),"Links to related modules"

  _set_blast1_stats
 Usage     : n/a; internal function called by _parse_footer()
 Purpose   : Extracts statistical and other parameters from BLAST 1.x style eports.
           : Handles NCBI Blast1 and WashU-Blast2 formats.
           : Stats collected: database release, gapping,
           : posted date, matrix used, filter used, Karlin-Altschul parameters,
           : E, S, T, X, W.

See Also : parse(), _parse_footer(), _set_database(), Bio::Tools::SeqAnal::set_date(),"Links to related modules"

  _set_gapping_wu
 Usage     : n/a; internal function called by _set_blast1_stats()
 Purpose   : Determine if gapping_wu was on for WashU Blast reports.
 Comments  : In earlier versions, gapping was always specified
           : but in the current version (2.0a19MP), gapping is on by default
           : and there is no positive "gapping" indicator in the Parameters
           : section.

See Also : _set_blast1_stats()

  _set_date
 Usage     : n/a; internal function called by _parse_footer()
 Purpose   : Determine the date on which the Blast analysis was performed.
 Comments  : Date information is not consistently added to Blast output.
           : Uses superclass method set_date() to set date from the file,
           : (if any).

See Also : _parse_footer(), Bio::Tools::SeqAnal::set_date(),"Links to related modules"

  _set_length
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically during Blast report parsing.
 Purpose   : Sets the length of the query sequence (extracted from report).
 Returns   : integer (length of the query sequence)
 Throws    : Exception if cannot determine the query sequence length from
           :           the BLAST report.
           : Exception if the length is below the min_length cutoff (if any).
 Comments  : The logic here is a bit different from the other _set_XXX()
           : methods since the significance of the BLAST report is assessed
           : if MIN_LENGTH is set.

See Also : Bio::Tools::SeqAnal::length(), "Links to related modules"

  _set_database
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically during Blast report parsing.
 Purpose   : Sets the name of the database used by the BLAST analysis.
           : Extracted from raw BLAST report.
 Throws    : Exception if the name of the database cannot be determined.
 Comments  : The database name is used by methods or related objects
           : for database-specific parsing.

See Also : parse(), Bio::Tools::SeqAnal::database(),Bio::Tools::SeqAnal::_set_db_stats(),"Links to related modules"

  _set_query
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically during Blast report parsing.
 Purpose   : Set the name of the query and the query description.
           : Extracted from the raw BLAST report.
 Returns   : String containing name of query extracted from report.
 Throws    : Warning if the name of the query cannont be obtained.

See Also : Bio::Tools::SeqAnal::query_desc(),"Links to related modules"

  _parse_signif
 Usage     : &_parse_signif(string, layout, gapped);
           : This is a class function.
 Purpose   : Extracts the P- or Expect value from a single line of a BLAST description section.
 Example   : &_parse_signif("PDB_UNIQUEP:3HSC_  heat-shock cognate ...   799  4.0e-206  2", 1);
           : &_parse_signif("gi|758803  (U23828) peritrophin-95 precurs   38  0.19", 2);
 Argument  : string = line from BLAST description section
           : layout = integer (1 or 2)
           : gapped = boolean (true if gapped Blast).
 Returns   : Float (0.001 or 1e-03)
 Status    : Static

  signif
 Usage     : $blast->signif();
 Purpose   : Gets the P or Expect value used as significance screening cutoff.
 Returns   : Scientific notation number with this format: 1.0e-05.
 Argument  : n/a
 Comments  : Screening of significant hits uses the data provided on the
           : description line. For Blast1 and WU-Blast2, this data is P-value.
           : for Blast2 it is an Expect value.
           :
           : Obtains info from the static $Blast object if it has not been set
           : for the current object.

See Also : _set_signif()

  is_signif
 Usage     : $blast->is_signif();
 Purpose   : Determine if the BLAST report contains significant hits.
 Returns   : Boolean
 Argument  : n/a
 Comments  : BLAST reports without significant hits but with defined
           : significance criteria will throw exceptions during construction.
           : This obviates the need to check significant() for
           : such objects.

See Also : _set_signif()

  signif_fmt
 Usage     : $blast->signif_fmt( [FMT] );
 Purpose   : Allows retrieval of the P/Expect exponent values only
           : or as a two-element list (mantissa, exponent).
 Usage     : $blast_obj->signif_fmt('exp');
           : $blast_obj->signif_fmt('parts');
 Returns   : String or '' if not set.
 Argument  : String, FMT = 'exp' (return the exponent only)
           :             = 'parts'(return exponent + mantissa in 2-elem list)
           :              = undefined (return the raw value)
 Comments  : P/Expect values are still stored internally as the full,
           : scientific notation value.
           : This method uses the static $Blast object since this issue
           : will pertain to all Blast reports within a given set.
           : This setting is propagated to Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm.

  min_length
 Usage     : $blast->min_length();
 Purpose   : Gets the query sequence length used as significance screening criteria.
 Returns   : Integer
 Argument  : n/a
 Comments  : Obtains info from the static $Blast object if it has not been set
           : for the current object.

See Also : _set_signif(), signif()

  gapped
 Usage     : $blast->gapped();
 Purpose   : Set/Get boolean indicator for gapped BLAST.
 Returns   : Boolean
 Argument  : n/a
 Comments  : Obtains info from the static $Blast object if it has not been set
           : for the current object.

  _get_stats
 Usage     : n/a; internal method.
 Purpose   : Set/Get indicator for collecting full statistics from report.
 Returns   : Boolean (0 | 1)
 Comments  : Obtains info from the static $Blast object which gets set
           : by _init_parse_params().

  _layout
 Usage     : n/a; internal method.
 Purpose   : Set/Get indicator for the layout of the report.
 Returns   : Integer (1 | 2)
           : Defaults to 2 if not set.
 Comments  : Blast1 and WashU-Blast2 have a layout = 1.
           : This is intended for internal use by this and closely
           : allied modules like Sbjct.pm and HSP.pm.
           :
           : Obtains info from the static $Blast object if it has not been set
           : for the current object.

  hits
 Usage     : $blast->hits();
 Purpose   : Get a list containing all BLAST hit (Sbjct) objects.
           : Get the numbers of significant hits.
 Examples  : @hits       = $blast->hits();
           : $num_signif = $blast->hits();
 Returns   : List context : list of Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm objects
           :                or an empty list if there are no hits.
           : Scalar context: integer (number of significant hits)
           :                 or zero if there are no hits.
           :                 (Equivalent to num_hits()).
 Argument  : n/a. Relies on wantarray.
 Throws    : n/a.
           : Not throwing exception because the absence of hits may have
           : resulted from stringent significance criteria, not a failure
           : set the hits.

See Also : hit(), num_hits(), is_signif(), _set_signif()

  hit
 Example   : $blast_obj->hit( [class] )
 Purpose   : Get a specific hit object.
           : Provides some syntactic sugar for the hits() method.
 Usage     : $hitObj = $blast->hit();
           : $hitObj = $blast->hit('best');
           : $hitObj = $blast->hit('worst');
           : $hitObj = $blast->hit( $name );
 Returns   : Object reference for a Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct.pm object.
           : undef if there are no hit (Sbjct) objects defined.
 Argument  : Class (or no argument).
           :   No argument (default) = highest scoring hit (same as 'best').
           :   'best' or 'first' = highest scoring hit.
           :   'worst' or 'last' = lowest scoring hit.
           :   $name = retrieve a hit by seq id (case-insensitive).
 Throws    : Exception if the Blast object has no significant hits.
           : Exception if a hit cannot be found when supplying a specific
           : hit sequence identifier as an argument.
 Comments  : 'best'  = lowest significance value (P or Expect) among significant hits.
           : 'worst' = highest sigificance value (P or Expect) among significant hits.

See Also : hits(), num_hits(), is_signif()

  num_hits
 Usage     : $blast->num_hits( ['total'] );
 Purpose   : Get number of significant hits or number of total hits.
 Examples  : $num_signif = $blast-num_hits;
           : $num_total  = $blast->num_hits('total');
 Returns   : Integer
 Argument  : String = 'total' (or no argument).
           :   No argument (Default) = return number of significant hits.
           :   'total' = number of total hits.
 Throws    : n/a.
           : Not throwing exception because the absence of hits may have
           : resulted from stringent significance criteria, not a failure
           : set the hits.
 Comments  : A significant hit is defined as a hit with an expect value
           : (or P value for WU-Blast) at or below the -signif parameter
           : used when parsing the report. Additionally, if a filter function
           : was supplied, the significant hit must also pass that
           : criteria.

See Also : hits(), hit(), is_signif(), _set_signif(), parse()

  lowest_p
 Usage     : $blast->lowest_p()
 Purpose   : Get the lowest P-value among all hits in a BLAST report.
           : Syntactic sugar for $blast->hit('best')->p().
 Returns   : Float or scientific notation number.
           : Returns -1.0 if lowest_p has not been set.
 Argument  : n/a.
 Throws    : Exception if the Blast report does not report P-values
           : (as is the case for NCBI Blast2).
 Comments  : A value is returned regardless of whether or not there were
           : significant hits ($DEFAULT_SIGNIF, currently  999).

See Also : lowest_expect(), lowest_signif(), highest_p(), signif_fmt()

  lowest_expect
 Usage     : $blast->lowest_expect()
 Purpose   : Get the lowest Expect value among all hits in a BLAST report.
           : Syntactic sugar for $blast->hit('best')->expect()
 Returns   : Float or scientific notation number.
           : Returns -1.0 if lowest_expect has not been set.
 Argument  : n/a.
 Throws    : Exception if there were no significant hits and the report
           : does not have Expect values on the description lines
           : (i.e., Blast1, WashU-Blast2).

See Also : lowest_p(), lowest_signif(), highest_expect(), signif_fmt()

  highest_p
 Example   : $blast->highest_p( ['overall'])
 Purpose   : Get the highest P-value among all hits in a BLAST report.
           : Syntactic sugar for $blast->hit('worst')->p()
           : Can also get the highest P-value overall (not just among signif hits).
 Usage     : $p_signif = $blast->highest_p();
           : $p_all    = $blast->highest_p('overall');
 Returns   : Float or scientific notation number.
           : Returns -1.0 if highest_p has not been set.
 Argument  : String 'overall' or no argument.
           : No argument = get highest P-value among significant hits.
 Throws    : Exception if object is created from a Blast2 report
           : (which does not report P-values).

See Also : highest_signif(), lowest_p(), _set_signif(), signif_fmt()

  highest_expect
 Usage     : $blast_object->highest_expect( ['overall'])
 Purpose   : Get the highest Expect value among all significant hits in a BLAST report.
           : Syntactic sugar for $blast->hit('worst')->expect()
 Examples  : $e_sig = $blast->highest_expect();
           : $e_all = $blast->highest_expect('overall');
 Returns   : Float or scientific notation number.
           : Returns -1.0 if highest_exoect has not been set.
 Argument  : String 'overall' or no argument.
           : No argument = get highest Expect-value among significant hits.
 Throws    : Exception if there were no significant hits and the report
           : does not have Expect values on the description lines
           : (i.e., Blast1, WashU-Blast2).

See Also : lowest_expect(), highest_signif(), signif_fmt()

  lowest_signif
 Usage     : $blast_obj->lowest_signif();
           : Syntactic sugar for $blast->hit('best')->signif()
 Purpose   : Get the lowest P or Expect value among all hits
           : in a BLAST report.
           : This method is syntactic sugar for $blast->hit('best')->signif()
           : The value returned is the one which is reported in the decription
           : section of the Blast report.
           : For Blast1 and WU-Blast2, this is a P-value,
           : for NCBI Blast2, it is an Expect value.
 Example   : $blast->lowest_signif();
 Returns   : Float or scientific notation number.
           : Returns -1.0 if lowest_signif has not been set.
 Argument  : n/a.
 Throws    : n/a.
 Status    : Deprecated. Use lowest_expect() or lowest_p().
 Comments  : The signif() method provides a way to deal with the fact that
           : Blast1 and Blast2 formats differ in what is reported in the
           : description lines of each hit in the Blast report. The signif()
           : method frees any client code from having to know if this is a P-value
           : or an Expect value, making it easier to write code that can process
           : both Blast1 and Blast2 reports. This is not necessarily a good thing, since
           : one should always know when one is working with P-values or
           : Expect values (hence the deprecated status).
           : Use of lowest_expect() is recommended since all hits will have an Expect value.

See Also : lowest_p(), lowest_expect(), signif(), signif_fmt(), _set_signif()

  highest_signif
 Usage     : $blast_obj->highest_signif('overall');
           : Syntactic sugar for $blast->hit('worst')->signif()
 Purpose   : Get the highest P or Expect value among all hits
           : in a BLAST report.
           : The value returned is the one which is reported in the decription
           : section of the Blast report.
           : For Blast1 and WU-Blast2, this is a P-value,
           : for NCBI Blast2, it is an Expect value.
 Example   : $blast->highest_signif();
 Returns   : Float or scientific notation number.
           : Returns -1.0 if highest_signif has not been set.
 Argument  : Optional  string 'overall' to get the highest overall significance value.
 Throws    : n/a.
 Status    : Deprecated. Use highest_expect() or highest_p().
 Comments  : Analogous to lowest_signif(), q.v.

See Also : lowest_signif(), lowest_p(), lowest_expect(), signif(), signif_fmt(), _set_signif()

  matrix
 Usage     : $blast_object->matrix();
 Purpose   : Get the name of the scoring matrix used.
           : This is extracted from the report.
 Argument  : n/a
 Returns   : string or undef if not defined

  filter
 Usage     : $blast_object->filter();
 Purpose   : Get the name of the low-complexity sequence filter used.
           : (SEG, SEG+XNU, DUST, NONE).
           : This is extracted from the report.
 Argument  : n/a
 Returns   : string or undef if not defined

  expect
 Usage     : $blast_object->expect();
 Purpose   : Get the expect parameter (E) used for the Blast analysis.
           : This is extracted from the report.
 Argument  : n/a
 Returns   : string or undef if not defined.

  karlin_altschul
 Usage     : $blast_object->karlin_altschul();
 Purpose   : Get the Karlin_Altschul sum statistics (Lambda, K, H)
           : These are extracted from the report.
 Argument  : n/a
 Returns   : list of three floats (Lambda, K, H)
           : If not defined, returns list of three zeros)

  word_size
 Usage     : $blast_object->word_size();
 Purpose   : Get the word_size used during the Blast analysis.
           : This is extracted from the report.
 Argument  : n/a
 Returns   : integer or undef if not defined.

  s
 Usage     : $blast_object->s();
 Purpose   : Get the s statistic for the Blast analysis.
           : This is extracted from the report.
 Argument  : n/a
 Returns   : integer or undef if not defined.

  gap_creation
 Usage     : $blast_object->gap_creation();
 Purpose   : Get the gap creation penalty used for a gapped Blast analysis.
           : This is extracted from the report.
 Argument  : n/a
 Returns   : integer or undef if not defined.

See Also : gap_extension()

  gap_extension
 Usage     : $blast_object->gap_extension();
 Purpose   : Get the gap extension penalty used for a gapped Blast analysis.
           : This is extracted from the report.
 Argument  : n/a
 Returns   : integer or undef if not defined.

See Also : gap_extension()

  ambiguous_aln
 Usage     : $blast_object->ambiguous_aln();
 Purpose   : Test all hits and determine if any have an ambiguous alignment.
 Example   : print "ambiguous" if $blast->ambiguous_aln();
 Returns   : Boolean (true if ANY significant hit has an ambiguous alignment)
 Argument  : n/a
 Throws    : n/a
 Status    : Experimental
 Comments  : An ambiguous BLAST alignment is defined as one where two or more
           : different HSPs have significantly overlapping sequences such
           : that it is not possible to create a unique alignment
           : by simply concatenating HSPs. This may indicate the presence
           : of multiple domains in one sequence relative to another.
           : This method only indicates the presence of ambiguity in at
           : least one significant hit. To determine the nature of the
           : ambiguity, each hit must be examined.

See Also : Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct::ambiguous_aln(),"Links to related modules"

  overlap
 Usage     : $blast_object->overlap([integer]);
 Purpose   : Set/Get the number of overlapping residues allowed when tiling multiple HSPs.
           : Delegates to Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct::overlap().
 Throws    : Exception if there are no significant hits.
 Status    : Experimental

See Also : Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct::overlap(),"Links to related modules"

  homol_data
 Usage     : @data = $blast_object->homo_data( %named_params );
 Purpose   : Gets specific similarity data about each significant hit.
 Returns   : Array of strings:
           : "Homology data" for each HSP is in the format:
           :  "<integer> <start> <stop>"
           : Data for different HSPs are tab-delimited.
 Argument  : named parameters passed along to the hit objects.
 Throws    : n/a
 Status    : Experimental
 Comments  : This is a very experimental method used for obtaining an
           : indication of:
           :   1) how many HSPs are in a Blast alignment
           :   2) how strong the similarity is between sequences in the HSP
           :   3) the endpoints of the alignment (sequence monomer numbers)

See Also : Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct::homol_data(),"Links to related modules"

REPORT GENERATING METHODS

  table
 Usage     : $blast_obj->table( [get_desc]);
 Purpose   : Output data for each HSP of each hit in tab-delimited format.
 Example   : print $blast->table;
           : print $blast->table(0);
           : # Call table_labels() to print labels.
 Argument  : get_desc = boolean, if false the description of each hit is not included.
           :            Default: true (if not defined, include description column).
 Returns   : String containing tab-delimited set of data for each HSP
           : of each significant hit. Different HSPs are separated by newlines.
           : Left-to-Right order of fields:
           : 1 QUERY_NAME             # Sequence identifier of the query.
           : 2 QUERY_LENGTH           # Full length of the query sequence.
           : 3 SBJCT_NAME             # Sequence identifier of the sbjct ("hit".
           : 4 SBJCT_LENGTH           # Full length of the sbjct sequence.
           : 5 EXPECT                 # Expect value for the alignment.
           : 6 SCORE                  # Blast score for the alignment.
           : 7 BITS                   # Bit score for the alignment.
           : 8 NUM_HSPS               # Number of HSPs (not the "N" value).
           : 9 HSP_FRAC_IDENTICAL     # fraction of identical substitutions.
           : 10 HSP_FRAC_CONSERVED    # fraction of conserved ("positive") substitutions.
           : 11 HSP_QUERY_ALN_LENGTH  # Length of the aligned portion of the query sequence.
           : 12 HSP_SBJCT_ALN_LENGTH  # Length of the aligned portion of the sbjct sequence.
           : 13 HSP_QUERY_GAPS        # Number of gaps in the aligned query sequence.
           : 14 HSP_SBJCT_GAPS        # Number of gaps in the aligned sbjct sequence.
           : 15 HSP_QUERY_START       # Starting coordinate of the query sequence.
           : 16 HSP_QUERY_END         # Ending coordinate of the query sequence.
           : 17 HSP_SBJCT_START       # Starting coordinate of the sbjct sequence.
           : 18 HSP_SBJCT_END         # Ending coordinate of the sbjct sequence.
           : 19 HSP_QUERY_STRAND      # Strand of the query sequence (TBLASTN/X only)
           : 20 HSP_SBJCT_STRAND      # Strand of the sbjct sequence (TBLASTN/X only)
           : 21 HSP_FRAME             # Frame for the sbjct translation (TBLASTN/X only)
           : 22 SBJCT_DESCRIPTION  (optional)  # Full description of the sbjct sequence from
           :                                  # the alignment section.
 Throws    : n/a
 Comments  : This method does not collect data based on tiling of the HSPs.
           : The table will contains redundant information since the hit name,
           : id, and other info for the hit are listed for each HSP.
           : If you need more flexibility in the output format than this
           : method provides, design a custom function.

See Also : table_tiled(), table_labels(), _display_hits()

  table_labels
 Usage     : print $blast_obj->table_labels( [get_desc] );
 Purpose   : Get column labels for table().
 Returns   : String containing column labels. Tab-delimited.
 Argument  : get_desc = boolean, if false the description column is not included.
           : Default: true (if not defined, include description column).
 Throws    : n/a

See Also : table()

  table_tiled
 Purpose   : Get data from tiled HSPs in tab-delimited format.
           : Allows only minimal flexibility in the output format.
           : If you need more flexibility, design a custom function.
 Usage     : $blast_obj->table_tiled( [get_desc]);
 Example   : print $blast->table_tiled;
           : print $blast->table_tiled(0);
           : # Call table_labels_tiled() if you want labels.
 Argument  : get_desc = boolean, if false the description of each hit is not included.
           :            Default: true (include description).
 Returns   : String containing tab-delimited set of data for each HSP
           : of each significant hit. Multiple hits are separated by newlines.
           : Left-to-Right order of fields:
           : 1 QUERY_NAME           # Sequence identifier of the query.
           : 2 QUERY_LENGTH         # Full length of the query sequence.
           : 3 SBJCT_NAME           # Sequence identifier of the sbjct ("hit".
           : 4 SBJCT_LENGTH         # Full length of the sbjct sequence.
           : 5 EXPECT               # Expect value for the alignment.
           : 6 SCORE                # Blast score for the alignment.
           : 7 BITS                 # Bit score for the alignment.
           : 8 NUM_HSPS             # Number of HSPs (not the "N" value).
           : 9 FRAC_IDENTICAL*      # fraction of identical substitutions.
           : 10 FRAC_CONSERVED*     # fraction of conserved ("positive") substitutions .
           : 11 FRAC_ALN_QUERY*     # fraction of the query sequence that is aligned.
           : 12 FRAC_ALN_SBJCT*     # fraction of the sbjct sequence that is aligned.
           : 13 QUERY_ALN_LENGTH*   # Length of the aligned portion of the query sequence.
           : 14 SBJCT_ALN_LENGTH*   # Length of the aligned portion of the sbjct sequence.
           : 15 QUERY_GAPS*         # Number of gaps in the aligned query sequence.
           : 16 SBJCT_GAPS*         # Number of gaps in the aligned sbjct sequence.
           : 17 QUERY_START*        # Starting coordinate of the query sequence.
           : 18 QUERY_END*          # Ending coordinate of the query sequence.
           : 19 SBJCT_START*        # Starting coordinate of the sbjct sequence.
           : 20 SBJCT_END*          # Ending coordinate of the sbjct sequence.
           : 21 AMBIGUOUS_ALN       # Ambiguous alignment indicator ('qs', 'q', 's').
           : 22 SBJCT_DESCRIPTION  (optional)  # Full description of the sbjct sequence from
           :                                  # the alignment section.
           :
           : * Items marked with a "*" report data summed across all HSPs
           :   after tiling them to avoid counting data from overlapping regions
           :   multiple times.
 Throws    : n/a
 Comments  : This function relies on tiling of the HSPs since it calls
           : frac_identical() etc. on the hit as opposed to each HSP individually.

See Also : table(), table_labels_tiled(), Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct::"HSP Tiling and Ambiguous Alignments", "Links to related modules"

  table_labels_tiled
 Usage     : print $blast_obj->table_labels_tiled( [get_desc] );
 Purpose   : Get column labels for table_tiled().
 Returns   : String containing column labels. Tab-delimited.
 Argument  : get_desc = boolean, if false the description column is not included.
           : Default: true (include description column).
 Throws    : n/a

See Also : table_tiled()

  display
 Usage     : $blast_object->display( %named_parameters );
 Purpose   : Display information about Bio::Tools::Blast.pm data members,
           : E.g., parameters of the report, data for each hit., etc.
           : Overrides Bio::Root::Object::display().
 Example   : $object->display(-SHOW=>'stats');
           : $object->display(-SHOW=>'stats,hits');
 Argument  : Named parameters: (TAGS CAN BE UPPER OR LOWER CASE)
           :     -SHOW  => 'file' | 'hits' | 'homol'
           :     -WHERE => filehandle (default = STDOUT)
 Returns   : n/a (print/printf is called)
 Status    : Experimental
 Comments  : For tab-delimited output, see table().

See Also : _display_homol(), _display_hits(), _display_stats(), table(), Bio::Root::Tools::SeqAnal::display(),"Links to related modules",

  _display_homol
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically by display()
 Purpose   : Print homology data for hits in the BLAST report.
 Example   : n/a
 Argument  : one argument = filehandle object.
 Returns   : printf call.
 Status    : Experimental

See Also : homol_data(), display()

  _display_stats
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically by display()
 Purpose   : Display information about the Blast report "meta" data.
           : Overrides Bio::Tools::SeqAnal::_display_stats() calling it first.
 Example   : n/a
 Argument  : one argument = filehandle object.
 Returns   : printf call.
 Status    : Experimental

See Also : display(), Bio::Tools::SeqAnal::_display_stats(),"Links to related modules"

  _display_hits
 Usage     : n/a; called automatically by display()
 Purpose   : Display data for each hit. Not tab-delimited.
 Example   : n/a
 Argument  : one argument = filehandle object.
 Returns   : printf call.
 Status    : Experimental
 Comments  : For tab-delimited output, see table().

See Also : display(), Bio::Tools::Blast::Sbjct::display(), table(), "Links to related modules"

  to_html
 Usage     : $blast_object->to_html( [%named_parameters] )
 Purpose   : To produce an HTML-formatted version of a BLAST report
           : for efficient navigation of the report using a web browser.
 Example   : # Using the static Blast object:
           : # Can read from STDIN or from a designated file:
           :   $Blast->to_html($file);
           :   $Blast->to_html(-FILE=>$file, -HEADER=>$header);
           :   (if no file is supplied, STDIN will be used).
           : # saving HTML to an array:
           :   $Blast->to_html(-FILE=>$file, -OUT =>\@out);
           : # Using a pre-existing blast object (must have been built from
           : # a file, not STDIN:
           :   $blastObj->to_html();
 Returns   : n/a, either prints report to STDOUT or saves to a supplied array
           : if an '-OUT' parameter is defined (see below).
 Argument  : %named_parameters: (TAGS ARE AND CASE INSENSITIVE).
           :    -FILE   => string containing name of a file to be processed.
           :               If not a valid file or undefined, STDIN will be used.
           :               Can skip the -FILE tag if supplying a filename
           :               as a single argument.
           :    -HEADER => string
           :               This should be an HTML-formatted string to be used
           :               as a header for the page, typically describing query sequence,
           :               database searched, the date of the analysis, and any
           :               additional links.
           :               If not supplied, no special header is used.
           :               Regardless of whether a header is supplied, the
           :               standard info at the top of the report is highlighted.
           :               This should include the <HEADER></HEADER> section
           :               of the page as well.
           :
           :    -IN    => array reference containing a raw Blast report.
           :              each line in a separate element in the array.
           :              If -IN is not supplied, read() is called
           :              and data is then read either from STDIN or a file.
           :
           :    -OUT   => array reference to hold the HTML output.
           :              If not supplied, output is sent to STDOUT.
 Throws    : Exception is propagated from $HTML::get_html_func()
           : and Bio::Root::Object::read().
 Comments  : The code that does the actual work is located in
           :  Bio::Tools::Blast::HTML::get_html_func().
 Bugs      : Some hypertext links to external databases may not be
           : correct. This due in part to the dynamic nature of
           : the web.
           : Hypertext links are not added to hits without database ids.
 TODO      : Possibly create a function to produce fancy default header
           : using data extracted from the report (requires some parsing).
           : For example, it would be nice to always include a date

See Also : Bio::Tools::Blast::HTML::get_html_func(), Bio::Root::Object::read(), "Links to related modules"

FOR DEVELOPERS ONLY

  Data Members
Information about the various data members of this module is provided for those wishing to modify or understand the code. Two things to bear in mind:

1 Do NOT rely on these in any code outside of this module.
    All data members are prefixed with an underscore to signify that they are private. Always use accessor methods. If the accessor doesn't exist or is inadequate, create or modify an accessor (and let me know, too!). (An exception to this might be for Sbjct.pm or HSP.pm which are more tightly coupled to Blast.pm and may access Blast data members directly for efficiency purposes, but probably should not).

2 This documentation may be incomplete and out of date.
    It is easy for these data member descriptions to become obsolete as this module is still evolving. Always double check this info and search for members not described here.

An instance of Bio::Tools::Blast.pm is a blessed reference to a hash containing all or some of the following fields:

 FIELD           VALUE
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 _significance    P-value or Expect value cutoff (depends on Blast version:
                  Blast1/WU-Blast2 = P-value; Blast2 = Expect value).
                  Values GREATER than this are deemed not significant.

 _significant     Boolean. True if the query has one or more significant hit.

 _min_length      Integer. Query sequences less than this will be skipped.

 _confirm_significance  Boolean. True if client has supplied significance criteria.

 _gapped          Boolean. True if BLAST analysis has gapping turned on.

 _hits            List of Sbjct.pm objects.

 _num_hits        Number of hits obtained from the BLAST report.

 _num_hits_significant Number of significant based on Significant data members.

 _highestSignif   Highest P or Expect value overall (not just what is stored in _hits).

 _lowestSignif    Lowest P or Expect value overall (not just what is stored in _hits).

The static $Blast object has a special set of members:

  _errs
  _share
  _stream
  _get_stats
  _gapped
  _filt_func

 Miscellaneous statistical parameters:
 -------------------------------------
  _filter, _matrix, _word_size, _expect, _gapCreation, _gapExtension, _s,
  _lambda, _k, _h

 INHERITED DATA MEMBERS
 -----------------------
 (See Bio::Tools::SeqAnal.pm for inherited data members.)