Read BLAST as evidence, not a name tag
Judge a BLAST hit using multiple fields instead of copying the top description.
The move: read the alignment, not just the hit name. BLAST answers a specific question: what database sequences have local similarity to my query? It does not automatically answer whether the whole gene is the same, whether the function is proven, or whether the database label is curated. Use four fields as a first pass. Query coverage asks how much of your query aligned. Percent identity asks how similar the aligned region is. E-value asks how surprising the match is in the database search space. Database and organism context ask whether you searched the right universe. This works because each…
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