Upcoming Ensembl Platform Transition

This is the final release of its kind on this website.

In summer 2026, this site will bring you to the new Ensembl platform currently at beta.ensembl.org.
Please bookmark this archive to retain access to the current site, tools and functionality until they are available on the new platform -> jun2026.archive.ensembl.org

Human vs Elephant shark LastZ results

Human (Homo sapiens, GRCh38) and Elephant shark (Callorhinchus milii, Callorhinchus_milii-6.1.3) were aligned using the LastZ alignment algorithm (LastZ) in Ensembl release 97. Human was used as the reference species. After running LastZ, the raw LastZ alignment blocks were chained according to their location in both genomes. During the final netting process, the best sub-chain was chosen in each region on the reference species.

Configuration parameters

ParameterValue
Gap open penalty (O)400
Gap extend penalty (E)30
HSP threshold (K)3000
Threshold for gapped extension (L)3000
Threshold for alignments between gapped alignment blocks (H)2200
Seed and Transition value (T)1
Scoring matrix (Q)
Default:
     A    C    G    T
    91 -114  -31 -123
  -114  100 -125  -31
   -31 -125  100 -114
  -123  -31 -114   91

Chunking parameters

ParameterHumanElephant shark
Chunk size30,000,00010,100,000
Overlap0100,000
Group set size10,100,000
Masking options{default_soft_masking => 1}{default_soft_masking => 1}

Statistics over 194,721 alignment blocks

Genome coverage (bp) Coding exon coverage (bp)
Human

Uncovered: 3,060,473,440 out of 3,099,750,718
Covered: 39,277,278 out of 3,099,750,718

Uncovered: 16,607,393 out of 38,571,754
Matches: 15,240,452 out of 38,571,754
Mismatches: 6,401,752 out of 38,571,754
Insertions: 322,157 out of 38,571,754
Identity over aligned base-pairs: 69.4%

Elephant shark

Uncovered: 945,518,926 out of 974,498,586
Covered: 28,979,660 out of 974,498,586

Uncovered: 12,583,927 out of 30,661,569
Matches: 12,588,178 out of 30,661,569
Mismatches: 5,212,512 out of 30,661,569
Insertions: 276,952 out of 30,661,569
Identity over aligned base-pairs: 69.6%

Block size distribution

Size range All 194,721 alignment blocks Blocks grouped in nets
# blocks Total size (incl. gaps) # nets Total size (incl. gaps)
1 bp - 10 bp
647
2.7 kb
10 bp - 100 bp
33,128
2.5 Mb
11,712
899.8 kb
100 bp - 1 kb
158,607
33.7 Mb
72,827
21.6 Mb
1 kb - 10 kb
2,315
3.6 Mb
7,701
15.7 Mb
10 kb - 100 kb
24
605.5 kb
126
2.1 Mb
100 kb - 1 Mb
1
125.1 kb