def _next(self, line):
if line.startswith('>'):
self._appendBoundingRegionTuple()
self._elCount = 0
self._chr = self._checkValidChr(line[1:].split()[0])
else:
if self._chr is None:
raise InvalidFormatError('FASTA file does not start with the ">" character.')
self._elCount += len(line)
ge = GenomeElement(self._genome, self._chr)
ge.val = np.fromstring(line, dtype='S1')
return ge
