#! /usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; use feature qw{ say }; my $seq; while () { if (my $line_number = (/^>JJ22$/ ... /^>/)) { chomp; $seq .= $_ unless $line_number == 1 || $line_number =~ /E0/; } } my $count = () = $seq =~ /[MT].[KA]/g; say $count; __DATA__ >JJ57 MKIKLVTVGDAKEEYLIQGINEYLKRLNSYAKRETIEVPDEKAPEKLSDAEMLQVKEKEGEYVFVLAI NGKQLSSEEFSKEIFQTGISGKSNLTFTTCFSLGLSDSVLQRIMKGEPYHKL >JJ22 MDQNGASGSHPNRASTRKGAHARERGATVSAMSANRSNIIDEMAKICEADRQTFAIARRTRNESQ FFGFRTASNKAIEITEAMEKRGAMFLTQSKATDQLNGWQPSDEPDKTSAESEPWFRGKQLSSEEFS KEIFQTGISGKSNLTFTTCFSLGLSDSVLQRIMKGEPYHKL >JJ41 MWKTVAPIFAAIFAVGLCGTFRTNTRKGEPTTKCFVFVHDTKARIYQCTFKTWSCPWLNNIVSAQF QFVTGANYKIVVKLVGELFTETALFNWSSPTTIFTGLGTLITADKTLDCDSNML