KLAST's major features:

• Reduces the processing time of sequences comparisons (up to 25 times faster than Blast) while providing highest quality results,
  
  
• Designed to compare two large sets of sequence databanks in a single run,
  
  
• Contains a fully integrated data filtering engine capable of selecting relevant hits with user-defined criteria (E-Value, identity, coverage, alignment length, etc.)
  
  
• Does not require any additional hardware, since it is a software solution. It is easy to install, cost-effective and takes full advantage of multi-core processors,
  
  
• Provides an integrated algorithm suite which automaticaly processes analysis workflows that includes similarity searches, hits annotations, and data filtering.

Fast and Accurate

KLAST is a new optimized implementation of the Inria's PLAST algorithm, to which several improvements have been made.

KLAST is fully designed to compare query and subject comprised of large sets of DNA, RNA and protein sequences using KLASTn, KLASTp, KLASTx, tKLASTx and tKLASTn methods.

KLAST is significantly faster than original PLAST, while providing comparable sensitivity to BLAST and SSearch algorithms.

KLAST contains a fully integrated data filtering engine capable of selecting relevant hits with user-defined criteria (E-Value, identity, coverage, alignment length, etc.).

Here is an additional KLAST vs. BLAST banchmark: comparison of 2327 proteins from the black cottonwood Populus trichocarpa species against 2.9 million proteins of NCBI RefSeq databank. Both algorithms ran on an Apple MacPro computer (8 cores). Data accuracy was evaluated by comparing exact alignments obtained by each algorithm against data produced by SSearch used as the reference.

More about this benchmarck.

Integrated

KLAST is integrated with two comprehensive data analysis desktop software applications:

Flexible

KLAST does not need to use any particular data format: it directly reads FASTA sequence files for the query and the subject databanks. However, ngKLAST and KLAST's plugin for KNIME come with a Databank Manager capable of preparing sequence sets from both public and personal data sets.

KLAST provides flexibility in a variety of ways:

• Hardware: KLAST takes full advantage of Intel 64-bit multi-core processors.

• Operating System: KLAST requires a 64-bit operating system and works on Windows 7, Linux and MacOS X.

• Software availability: KLAST comes with the Korilog Plugin for KNIME, and can be used within the KNIME graphical workbench or through the command-line. KLAST is also vailable within ngKLAST.

• IT Infrastructure: KLAST can be installed on a single desktop computer or on a cluster. It can be integrated within any existing sequence data analysis frameworks, including the Galaxy Platform.

• Customization: as KLAST is designed for KNIME, you can create workflows integrating KLAST features, KNIME data analysis methods and your own methods in a very straightforward way.

System requirements

KLAST starter configuration is:

• desktop computer
• Intel or AMD 64-bit quad-core
• 8 Gb RAM
• Windows 7, Linux or MacOS X (64-bit required)
• Java Runtime 1.6 (64-bit required)

Availability

KLAST is available as an Extension for KNIME and within ngKLAST.

Download a product sheet