What is MIME type "chemical/seq-aa-fasta"?

A MIME type is a string that tells browsers and other tools how to handle a particular kind of file.

The MIME type chemical/seq-aa-fasta is used for storing protein sequences in a simple text format. It follows the FASTA structure with one-letter codes for amino acids.
A header line, usually starting with a “>”, identifies the sequence. The remaining lines list the actual sequence.

• Main purpose: To represent protein sequences for bioinformatics analysis.
• Interoperability: It supports data exchange between research tools and workflows.
• Data handling: It allows easy parsing and manipulation in various software.

This MIME type is common in scientific research and is essential for tasks like sequence alignment and database searches.
Files using this format include those with the extensions FASTA and FA.
For more details on the format, see Wikipedia: FASTA Format.

Associated file extensions

.fasta, .fa

Usage Examples

HTTP Header

When serving content with this MIME type, set the Content-Type header:

    Content-Type: chemical/seq-aa-fasta
  

HTML

In HTML, you can specify the MIME type in various elements:

    <a href="file.dat" type="chemical/seq-aa-fasta">Download file</a>
  

Server-side (Node.js)

Setting the Content-Type header in Node.js:

    const http = require('http');
    
    http.createServer((req, res) => {
      res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'chemical/seq-aa-fasta');
      res.end('Content here');
    }).listen(3000);
  

Associated file extensions

.fasta, .fa