A sequence in FASTA format begins with a single-line description, followed by lines of sequence data using standard base code letters. The description line is distinguished from the sequence data by a greater-than (">") symbol in the first column. An example sequence in FASTA format is:
>gi|532319|pir|TVFV2E|TVFV2E envelope protein
CCACGAAGGCCACAGACGCCTTCCCCCTTGGACTCTCATT
CCCTTTTCCACGGAGCCCCGCGCTTTCGTGAGCCCCCTCG
AGGAACCTGGTCTCCGCATCCAGTTACCACCTCCTGCCTC
AGAGGCCATCTGAGCCCTT