There are a number of different ways that you can find the potential binding locations of primers on a sequence using MacVector. You can use the Quicktest Primer function, or create a Primer database and scan for potential primer binding sites using the Analyze | Nucleic Acid Subsequence analysis algorithm. You can also use the […]
MacVector Free is a version on MacVector that provides many of MacVector’s most popular functions completely free of charge. This is a new feature of MacVector that we introduced with the latest MacVector 12.7 version. Here’s how to get it – simply register for the fully functional 21-day time-limited trial version and install the trial […]
This is more of a Mac OS X tip than anything specific to MacVector. However, it does come up again and again and it illustrates just one way that MacVector is tightly integrated into the Apple operating system. If you right-click on the toolbar of any MacVector window, a drop down menu will appear (ctrl-click […]
Here at MacVector we do try to listen to our users and love getting feedback and suggestions for features to add to future versions. We also like to have “real world users” test each version before we finally release it as an upgrade. No matter how much internal testing we perform, there always seems to […]
I blogged about this a few years ago, but its something that still comes up on a regular basis. The blog link discusses the 6 main alignment algorithms in MacVector and how to decide which is the most appropriate for accomplishing different tasks. One common request we get is “I want to see my chromatograms/traces […]
Following on from my last post, and Nick’s comment that if you already have a primer collection, its not really practical to re-type them all into MacVector, one-by-one, here’s a useful tip to simplify that process. We have a utility called PrimerConverter.app that you can download from our website. You do need to be using […]
Thanks to our friends at the NCBI, BLAST is now working again!
As of 7pm EST in the US, MacVector cannot connect to the NCBI BLAST server. We are working to resolve the problem and will let you know when the problem is fixed.
If you have accumulated a collection of primers in your freezer, then you should consider storing the sequences in a primer database within MacVector so that you can rapidly scan any new plasmids for potential primer binding sites. Plus, you’ll have a nice electronic record of all your primer sequences. Start by choosing File | […]
MacVector does have a built-in Entrez browser that lets you search the online Entrez GenBank database using keywords and retrieve matching sequences either To Disk or as sequence windows (To Desktop) without needing to leave MacVector. You can access this via the Database | Internet Entrez Search… menu item. I’m not going to discuss how […]