title: Common file formats.
abstract: This appendix discusses a few of the file formats frequently encountered in bioinformatics. Specifically, it reviews the rules for generating FASTA files and provides guidance for interpreting NCBI descriptor lines, commonly found in FASTA files. In addition, it reviews the construction of GenBank, Phylip, MSF and Nexus files.
authors.affiliation: IBM Life Sciences, St. Leonards, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Shonda A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Leonard
authors.forename: Timothy G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Littlejohn
authors.forename: Andreas D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Baxevanis
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D003628:Database Management Systems / Q000592:standards*; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000592:standards*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D038622:Internationality; D012984:Software / Q000592:standards*