In sequence alignments such as those generated by a BLAST search, the significance of the alignment can be presented as an E-value, which specifies how likely it is for a match this good to be found in a database of a given size by chance. You have scanned a large sequence database with a sequence query, hoping to find a significant match. Which one would you look at:
A) a match with an E-value of 1
B) one with an E-value of 0.001

Question

In sequence alignments such as those generated by a BLAST search, the significance of the alignment can be presented as an E-value, which specifies how likely it is for a match this good to be found in a database of a given size by chance. You have scanned a large sequence database with a sequence query, hoping to find a significant match. Which one would you look at: 
A) a match with an E-value of 1
B) one with an E-value of 0.001

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A smaller E-value represents a more significant match.

In Sequence Alignments Such as Those Generated by a BLAST