BLAST Search Main Parameters
DESCRIPTIONS
Restricts the number of short descriptions of matching sequences reported to the number specified; default limit is 100 descriptions. See also EXPECT.
ALIGNMENTS
Restricts database sequences to the number specified for which high-scoring segment pairs (HSPs) are reported; the default limit is 100. If more database sequences than this happen to satisfy the statistical significance threshold for reporting (see EXPECT below), only the matches ascribed the greatest statistical significance are reported.
EXPECT
The statistical significance threshold for reporting matches against database sequences; the default value is 10, such that 10 matches are expected to be found merely by chance, according to the stochastic model of Karlin and Altschul (1990). If the statistical significance ascribed to a match is greater than the EXPECT threshold, the match will not be reported. Lower EXPECT thresholds are more stringent, leading to fewer chance matches being reported. Fractional values are acceptable.