<p>The problem was that the database must be specified without suffix, i.e. <code>blastn -db testdb</code> as opposed to <code>blastn -db testdb.nal</code>.</p>

<p>By the way, it produces exactly the same output as</p>

<pre><code>blastn -db "FAM1079.ffn FAM3228.ffn FAM6161.ffn FAM19036.ffn" -query query_single_nucl.fasta -outfmt 6
</code></pre>

<p>and the performance is not better.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-18T09:32:53.393Z
2020-03-18T09:32:53.393Z
MrTomRod
<p>I want to merge/concatenate BLAST databases as suggested <a href="https://bioinformatics.stackexchange.com/questions/7386/merging-concatentating-blast-databases">here</a>.</p>

<p>This is my example script that explains what I'm trying to achieve better than words can:</p>

<pre><code>#!/bin/bash

for file in FAM1079.ffn FAM3228.ffn FAM6161.ffn FAM19036.ffn
do
    echo "## Make DB for <span class="math-container">$file"
 makeblastdb -in $</span>file -dbtype nucl &amp;&gt;/dev/null
    blastn -db $file  -query query_single_nucl.fasta -outfmt 6
    echo
done

echo "## Create testdb.nal..."
blastdb_aliastool -dblist "FAM1079.ffn FAM3228.ffn FAM6161.ffn FAM19036.ffn" -dbtype nucl -title test -out testdb

echo
echo "## Test testdb.nal..."
blastn -db testdb.nal -query query_single_nucl.fasta -outfmt 6
</code></pre>

<p>This is the output:</p>

<pre><code>## Make DB for FAM1079.ffn
test_query  FAM1079_00001   100.000 1266    0   0   1   1266    1   1266    0.0 2338

## Make DB for FAM3228.ffn
test_query  FAM3228_000001  100.000 1266    0   0   1   1266    1   1266    0.0 2338

## Make DB for FAM6161.ffn
test_query  FAM6161_000001  100.000 1266    0   0   1   1266    1   1266    0.0 2338

## Make DB for FAM19036.ffn
test_query  FAM19036p_000001    100.000 1266    0   0   1   1266    1   1266    0.0 2338

## Create testdb.nal...
Created nucleotide BLAST (alias) database testdb with 12692 sequences

## Test testdb.nal...
BLAST Database error: No alias or index file found for nucleotide database [testdb.nal] in search path [/path/to/files::]
</code></pre>

<p>While the individual databases work, the concatenated databases don't.</p>

<blast><makeblastdb>
Cannot blast database created with blastdb_aliastool: BLAST Database error: No alias or index file found
# Cannot blast database created with blastdb_aliastool: BLAST Database error: No alias or index file found

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-03-17)

I want to merge/concatenate BLAST databases as suggested here.
This is my example script that explains what I'm trying to achieve better than words can:
#!/bin/bash

for file in FAM1079.ffn FAM3228.ffn FAM6161.ffn FAM19036.ffn
do
    echo "## Make DB for $file"
 makeblastdb -in $file -dbtype nucl &>/dev/null
    blastn -db $file  -query query_single_nucl.fasta -outfmt 6
    echo
done

echo "## Create testdb.nal..."
blastdb_aliastool -dblist "FAM1079.ffn FAM3228.ffn FAM6161.ffn FAM19036.ffn" -dbtype nucl -title test -out testdb

echo
echo "## Test testdb.nal..."
blastn -db testdb.nal -query query_single_nucl.fasta -outfmt 6

This is the output:
## Make DB for FAM1079.ffn
test_query  FAM1079_00001   100.000 1266    0   0   1   1266    1   1266    0.0 2338

## Make DB for FAM3228.ffn
test_query  FAM3228_000001  100.000 1266    0   0   1   1266    1   1266    0.0 2338

## Make DB for FAM6161.ffn
test_query  FAM6161_000001  100.000 1266    0   0   1   1266    1   1266    0.0 2338

## Make DB for FAM19036.ffn
test_query  FAM19036p_000001    100.000 1266    0   0   1   1266    1   1266    0.0 2338

## Create testdb.nal...
Created nucleotide BLAST (alias) database testdb with 12692 sequences

## Test testdb.nal...
BLAST Database error: No alias or index file found for nucleotide database [testdb.nal] in search path [/path/to/files::]

While the individual databases work, the concatenated databases don't.

**Tags:** blast, makeblastdb

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2020-03-18. Score: 2

The problem was that the database must be specified without suffix, i.e. blastn -db testdb as opposed to blastn -db testdb.nal.
By the way, it produces exactly the same output as
blastn -db "FAM1079.ffn FAM3228.ffn FAM6161.ffn FAM19036.ffn" -query query_single_nucl.fasta -outfmt 6

and the performance is not better.


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