Sequence Formats & Conversions

FASTA Format
Description line starting by '>' followed by name and then
description;
Sequence in standard IUB/IUPAC amino acid and nucleic acid codes
starting on the next line until description line of next sequence
or end of file is reached. '-' often represents a gap of
indeterminated length.

Example:
>albumin of human origin 
MKWVTFISLLFLFSSAYSRGVFRRDAHKSEVAHRFKDLGEENFKALVLIAFAQYLQQCPFEDHVKL
VNEVTEFAKTCVADESAENCDKSLHTLFGDKLCTVATLRETYGEMADCCAKQEPERNECFLQHKDD 
NPNLPRLVRPEVDVMCTAFHDNEETFLKKYLYEIARRHPYFYAPELLFFAKRYKAAFTECCQAADK 
[...]

The description line (or header line) is often used to add 
information, but without clear consensus; here are a few usages:
>name
>name description
>name accession description
>namespace|accession.version|name description
>gi|identifier|namespace|accession.version|name description (NCBI)

Example:
>gi|412163|emb|CAA00606.1| albumin [Homo sapiens]
ReadSeq online sequence format conversion tool at EBI
ReadSeq, biosequence conversion tool, at Indiana University
Sequence/Alignment format converter
Converts input DNA/AA sequence to specified format (Input format is determined automatically).
Reformat sequence as text in columns of fixed width and with numbering
Convert Genbank to FASTA at Gene Infinity
Convert EMBL to FASTA at Gene Infinity
Description of multiple sequence formats used by EMBOSS