The Map tab of MacVector is a powerful way to visualise and interact with your sequences. All analysis tools will work directly in the Map tab. You can design primers, ligate and digest fragments from the Cloning Clipboard, visualise translated CDS regions and much more. In fact one of the only tasks, you will need to switch to the Editor tab for, is to manually type in some sequence. …and who needs to do that nowadays!
As well as the Map tab, you also have the Map tab in the Results window that is produced by most analysis tools. For example when designing primers you get a graphical map of your primers and products.
The Map tab of a Results window is as flexible as the Map tab of the main sequence window. If you need to Zoom to Residue to see your sequence results at the sequence level, or Drag to Zoom to show just a small areas, then go ahead. The Graphics Palette acts exactly as it does with the main sequence window’s Map tab.
A nice way to visualise an ORF analysis results is via the Map tab, except zoomed to the sequence level, rather than using it as a graphical overview of the ORF analysis.
When you initially run ANALYSE > ORF ANALYSIS the Map tab in the results window shows the entire sequence, with graphical symbols representing ORFs.
However, if you click ZOOM TO RESIDUE in the Graphics Palette, then instead you will see your sequence, any annotated features, and the amino acid sequence of any ORFs in your sequence. It’s a powerful way to visualise the results.
You can also directly analyse the results within the Map tab. Just click on an ORF and copy that sequence to a new one, or do a Blast search directly on that sequence to see if it’s the coding region you are looking for.
Remember that if you want to view both the Map tab and the Text tab you can drag the tab from one window and view both together.