[Bioperl-l] Bio::SeqIO::fasta.pm

[nkuipers]

>Any votes from the core or from people on the list? I don't have a strong 
view here. I recall having seen somewhere that indeed the presence of the name 
is optional, but I'm not sure.

I would vote in the direction of the barest distinguishing identifier 
required, even if that is no more than an otherwise meaningless alphanumeric:

>a
sequence...
>b
sequence...

or

>1
sequence...
>2
sequence...

or whatever.

That way you can retain sequence delimiting (which > by itself does) and still 
throw the FASTA file into programs like clustalx and BLAST without them 
complaining.  Easier to go back and identify a sequence at any given stage of 
your overall process too.

Nathanael Kuipers