Web-based NCBI Blast+ for Mac

Even though command-line NCBI BLAST+ is available for Mac, web-based interface like wwwblast for NCBI BLAST+ is not available and we had to enter long and tedious options to perform BLAST searches on Mac until now. 
Here is a web-based interface for NCBI BLAST+ for Mac. This software was originally developed by NCBI for cloud Linux servers and we ported it to Mac. Procedure below is confirmed to work fine on macOS 10.12 Sierra and OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

If you don't understand any part of the instruction below, we recommend you to try BlastStation2 or BlastStation-Local64 to save time.  You can start Blast search in less than five minutes with the intuitive manner of operation, amazing easy-to-use interface, and useful extra functions including summary table exporting in CSV format and hit sequence exporting in FASTA format.

 Requirements

 Preparation

 Install binary perl with necessary modules

 Modify built-in apache web server configuration file

  • Open Applications/Utilities/Terminal and enter commands below.
  • cd /etc/apache2; sudo cp -p httpd.conf httpd.conf.BAK; sudo bash -c 'cat httpd.conf | sed -e "s/#LoadModule cgi_module/LoadModule cgi_module/" | sed -e "s/#LoadModule php5_module/LoadModule php5_module/" | sed -e "s/#AddHandler cgi-script/AddHandler cgi-script/" > httpd.conf'

 Install web software and launch apache web server

NCBI BLAST+ 2.6.0 is included in the package.
  • Download webblastmac.tgz to the Desktop
  • Open Applications/Utilities/Terminal and enter commands below.
  • cd ~/Desktop
  • sudo tar xfz webblastmac.tgz
  • There are blast, CGI-Executables, and Documents folders in webblastmac folder.
  • cd ~/Desktop/webblastmac
  • sudo cp -pr blast /
  • sudo cp -pr CGI-Executables/* /Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables
  • sudo cp -pr Documents/* /Library/WebServer/Documents
  • sudo apachectl start

 Add BLAST databases

  • Create your BLAST database using makeblastdb.
  • Copy all database files to /blast/blastdb_custom.

 How to use

 Access web blast+

  • Launch your favorite browser such as Chrome or Firefox.
  • Type http://127.0.0.1/index.php in address bar and hit enter.

 Submit Blast+ job

  • Copy and paste your query sequences into Query field.
  • Select Database you want to use.
  • Select Program you want to use.
  • Select Optional Parameters you want to use.
  • Click BLAST button.

 Blast+ job in Progress

  • In progress page will be shown.

 View Blast+ Results

  • Click Reuqest ID.
  • Blast+ Results will be shown.

 Blast+ Jobs Maintenance

  • Click Recent Results Menu on the top.
  • Click RID to view result.
  • Click red X in Delete results column to delete job.
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