Returns the Definition from Nucleotide (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), given the accession number.

nucleotide_name_from_number.sh

#!/bin/bash

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    echo "Returns the Definition from Nucleotide (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/), given the accession number."
    echo "Usage:"
    echo "    $0 <accession_number>"
    echo "eg: $0 U49845"
    echo "Returns the definition/name string"
    echo "eg: Saccharomyces cerevisiae TCP1-beta gene, partial cds; and Axl2p (AXL2) and Rev7p (REV7) genes, complete cds"
    exit
fi

ACCESSION=$1

echo `curl -s -m4 'www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/'{$ACCESSION} | grep '<title>' | sed 's/<\/\?title>//g' | sed 's/^ *//g'`