"General Feature Format", a
file format for
biological data. It's
designed for easy
transfer of
information about
genetic features in a
sequence, and does this in a very
simple fashin. The format consists of several
fields, separated by
tabs. The first field is the name of the feature, the second the
source of the data, the third the
type of feature being noted (such as a
splice site, a
gene or a
transposon), the fourth the
base at which the feature starts, the fifth the base at which the feature ends, the sixth contans scoring information (when appropriate), the seventh which
strand of the
dna the feature is located on, the eighth the degree of
frame shifting and the ninth additional tagging data.
The format is not designed to be full-featured, but rather to be easily manipulatable (awk and grep can be used to good effect) and to contain pertinent information. It's pleasantly easy to work with. Replacement formats will probably have more features and are likely to be in xml, which will doubtless be fun.