Category Archives: Tips

Which DNA Matrix to use in Align To Folder?

By Chris | Published: November 20, 2019

The Database | Align To Folder function is a very useful tool to find and retrieve similar sequences from folders on your computer or on other local machines. Think of it as your own personal BLAST service. It can not only search individual sequences in any format MacVector can read (MacVector, Genbank, EMBL, ABI etc) […]

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Gap closing and genome finishing tools in Align to Reference and Assembler.

By Chris | Published: November 20, 2019

Automated algorithms can only take you so far with genome assembly. The final steps involved in finishing a genome always need manual intervention. MacVector’s various assembly editors have many tools for helping finish genome sequencing projects. For example, closing gaps, extending reference sequences and even automatically circularizing contigs. If you select reads, then right click […]

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Migrating your Vector NTI sequence database to MacVector.

By Chris | Published: September 27, 2019

ThermoFisher (owners of Invitrogen) have announced that Vector NTI Express is nearing the end of its life and Vector NTI Advanced was terminated quite some time ago. If you are looking for an easy to use sequence analysis application, then look for a reliable and trusted application. MacVector is easy to use, has a comprehensive […]

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Use a right-click in the Editor tab to see if your contig can be circularized

By Chris | Published: September 6, 2019

MacVector incorporates no less than THREE different de novo assemblers, phrap, velvet and SPAdes. While all are great assemblers, with each having their own specific advantages, none of them will generate a circular sequence from input reads. However, MacVector also includes a tool to help you with this. If you are assembling reads representing plasmid […]

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Import Multi-Sequence Genbank Files into an Assembly Project for easy access to Features

By Chris | Published: September 6, 2019

There are many genomes in the Genbank database that cannot be downloaded as single annotated sequences. These might be large multi-chromosome eukaryotic genomes, but, increasingly, partially sequenced bacterial chromosomes where the major contigs have been annotated using the NCBI annotation pipeline. Typically, when you encounter these, there are options to download annotated versions of these […]

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Opening Genbank or FASTA files with multiple sequences as individual sequences

By Chris | Published: September 6, 2019

Many sequence formats contain multiple concatenated sequence entries. For example FASTA and Genbank are two formats capable of storing multiple individual sequences. By default MacVector will treat such sequences as alignments and open them in the Multiple Sequence Alignment editor. Most users who want to open such a file do want to see an alignment. […]

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HOW DO I video guides to common molecular biology workflows

By Chris | Published: February 27, 2019

MacVector has a wide array of different tools for working with protein and DNA sequences. MacVector has always been designed with the Mac’s simplicity in mind and getting started with simple tasks is quick. However, making the most of the many functions and getting familiar with MacVector’s wide range of tools does require more help […]

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Show or hide the RE Picker and the Graphics Palette from the toolbar

By Chris | Published: February 8, 2019

MacVector 17’s brand new Restriction Enzyme Picker gives you an interactive way to quickly show what enzymes will digest your sequence. You can dynamically filter what sites are displayed. For example to show just 3’ overhang cutters or use other criteria. What’s more is that you can take a set of cut sites from one […]

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Scan For… Missing Primers: Automatic Primer Binding Site Display in MacVector 17.0

By Chris | Published: February 5, 2019

One new feature in our upcoming MacVector 17 release is the ability to automatically display primer binding sites in each DNA sequence that you open. Here’s an example of a couple of primers displayed on the popular pET 47b LIC cloning vector on each side of the LIC cloning site. The image shows how MacVector […]

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Restoring file associations when MacVector no longer opens your sequence documents.

By Chris | Published: January 30, 2019

Macs are pretty good at choosing the right application to open a document. For example when you double click on a .nucl document then it will open in MacVector. However, sometimes this file association breaks. Applications should coexist peacefully on a Mac, but sometimes a misbehaving app will corrupt these file associations and you will […]

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