Strand information for reference genome

Question

[Gene_MMP8]

What is the default strand of the reference genome hg38/hg19? If I am extracting bases from the genome using bedtools getfasta and not specify the strand explicitly, from which strand are the bases getting extracted?

Answer 1

[WouterDeCoster]

That would be the forward strand, in which the first base has a lower coordinate than the second.