STAR (Spliced Transcripts Alignment to a Reference) aims to achieve
accurate alignment of high-throughput RNA-seq data.  STAR is based on
a previously undescribed RNA-seq alignment algorithm that uses
sequential maximum mappable seed search in uncompressed suffix arrays
followed by seed clustering and stitching procedure. STAR outperforms
other aligners by a factor of >50 in mapping speed, aligning to the
human genome 550 million 2 x 76 bp paired-end reads per hour on a modest
12-core server, while at the same time improving alignment sensitivity
and precision