What is an FNA file?

What is an FNA file?

A file with the FNA extension is a FASTA format DNA and protein sequence alignment file that stores DNA information that can be used by molecular biology software.

Specifically, FNA files can be used to contain only nucleic acid information while other FASTA formats contain other information related to DNA, such as files with the extension FASTA, FAS, FA, FFN , FAA, FRN, MPFA, SEQ, NET or AA.

These text-based FASTA formats originally came from a software package of the same name, but are now used as standards in DNA and protein sequence alignment applications.

What is an FNA file? Picture 1

Note : FNA also mentions some technological terms that have nothing to do with this file format, such as final network acceptance, file name/attribute augmentation, Fujitsu network architecture and fast neighbor advertisement .

How to open FNA files

Open an FNA file in Windows, macOS, and Linux with Geneious (free for a limited time, usually 30 days). To do this, navigate to the File > Import menu and choose to import the file via the From File menu item .

You can also open a file with BLAST Ring Image Generator (BRIG).

Try Notepad++ or another text editor if the above suggestions don't work. The file may actually be text-based and easy to read, or you may find that it has nothing to do with the FASTA format, in which case opening the file as a text document may reveal identifying text the content used to create the file or file in what format.

How to convert FNA files

You can use Geneious to convert files to many other formats, such as FASTA, GB, GENEIOUS, MEG, ACE, CSV , NEX, PHY, SAM, TSV and VCF. This can be done through the program's File > Export menu.

That same program can also save files as PNG, JPG, EPS or PDF, via File > Save As Image File .

While you cannot normally rename a file extension to something else and expect it to work the same way, you can rename a .FNA file to a .FA file if the DNA sequencing software is specific Yours only recognizes the FA format.

Tip : Instead of renaming the file extension, you'll want to use a free file converter to convert other file types. In the case of FNA and FA files, it happens that some programs will only open files with the FA file extension, in which case renaming the file will work.

Still can't open the file?

If after using the programs above you still can't open your file, you may find that the file extension doesn't actually read .FNA but instead something that looks similar.

For example, FNG (Font Navigator Group) files look a lot like ".FNA" but if you look closely, only the first two letters are the same. Since the file extensions are different, it's a sign that they're in a different format and most likely won't work with the same program.

The same can happen with many other file extensions such as FAX, FAS (Compiled Fast-Load AutoLISP), FAT, FNTA (Aleph One Font), FNC (Vue Functions) and FND (Windows Saved Search).

The idea here is to make sure the file extension is in the form of .FNA. If so, try using the programs above again to open or convert it. If you have another file type, research the file's extension to find out what application is needed to open or convert it.

Jessica Tanner

Update 20 December 2023